Download - September/October Issue of Fore Your Information

Transcript
Page 1: September/October Issue of Fore Your Information

SeptemberOctober 2012

Dates to

Remember

October 22 2012

Plumas Lake

Golf amp Country Club

Hosted by Mike Kaveney

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E

Presidentrsquos Message 2

Meeting Schedule 3

UCR Field Day 5

Recreation amp Family 7

From the Field 8

Delegates Meeting 11

Meeting Highlights 14

Meeting Highlights 15

FORE YOUR INFORMATION

Sierra Nevada GCSA

An Affiliate Chapter of

the Golf Course

Superintendents

Association of America

P R E S I D E N T rsquo S C U P A T G R I Z Z LY B Y J E S S E S E Q U I N

To summarize the

event at Grizzly Ranch a

couple weeks ago as good

would be an understate-

ment The service condi-

tions and experience pro-

vided was exceptional and

we cannot thank Mike and

the Grizzly Ranch team

enough The event was

enjoyed by all and was a

huge success What a day

From entering

the facility the majestic

views and peaceful sur-

roundings set the tone

for the day I always

look forward to Moun-

tain golf in the Sierrarsquos

and Grizzly Ranch did

not disappoint Mother

nature provided ideal

weather for the day

which made it comfort-

able and ideal for

golf Service at the bag

drop and pro shop was

great The practice areas

and driving range were in

superb condition and ac-

cessible to hone in on

your game before the

tournament started The

staff also did an excellent

job in communicating and

(Continued on page 4)

Mike Kavaney

superintendent at Plumas

Lake Golf amp Country

Club will host the Octo-

ber meeting for the Sierra

Nevada GCSA Though

Mike has only been the

superintendent at Plumas

Lake for seven months he

considers this job as his

career highlight so far

Even though

Mikersquos family owned a

golf course and he started

working on the course at

a very young age he went

his own direction for a

while working construc-

tion jobs asphalt con-

crete framing and paint-

ing He even worked one

season of commercial

fishing in Alaska before

settling down at Whitney

Oaks where he remained

for 30 years He loves

being on the golf course

every day directing the

crew watching the turf

respond to the changes of

the seasons and he loves

the game of golf

Plumas Lake

Golf amp Country Club was

first established in 1926

It is a semi private facility

that has long been called

the ldquoHidden Jewelrdquo of the

Sacramento Valley It has

twice been listed in the top

100 public courses in

America by Golf Digest

The original nine

holes were developed by

the membership but in

1960 the course underwent

a complete re-design with

architect Bob Baldock

overseeing the project and

became an 18 hole facility

Then in 2006 they com-

pleted a renovation to all

the putting surfaces to add

slopes undulation and

(Continued on page 4)

P L U M A S L A K E G O L F amp C O U N T RY C L U B

M I C H A E L K AV E N E Y S U P E R I N T E N D E N T

I hope you enjoy

this latest edition of our

association newsletter We

are trying some new things

with articles to allow you

the member a chance to

learn something about our

region you might have

known but might not have

taken advantage of in the

past This is the time for

family friends and fellow-

ship

We will still have

our normal articles but for

the next few months we will

add an article that has ac-

tivities day trips etc for

you to try out and enjoy

Thank you Kurtis for the

article and I hope we as

members try it out

I would also like to

take the time to thank the

association for making my

time as the President of our

association a rewarding

one I feel as though we

have accomplished a lot

Some of which are the ini-

tiatives we have supported

the amount of money that

we have been able to donate

to research the scholarships

we have provided and we

have put our association in

a solid financial position for

our future Participation

was

good at our monthly meet-

ings and we have been able

to maintain a strong and

stable membership

Lets all remember

to thank the support staff as

well Irene Kim and every-

one else at the association

office have helped make

our association what it is

today So letrsquos all finish our

aerations over seeding

other fall activities and pro-

jects finish off strong and

spend our time to enjoying

the finer things in life

Jeff

Page 2

P R E S I D E N T rsquo S ME S S A G E B Y J E F F C O U W E N H O V E N

Fore Your Information

Fore Your Information

EDITOR

Jim Alwine

Bernardo Heights GC

OFFICE

SNGCSA

5322 N Leonard

Clovis CA 93619

559-298-6262

Fax 559-298-6957

sngcsaaaolcom

PRESIDENT

Jeff Couwenhoven

Resort at Squaw Creek

916-771-7370

VICE PRESIDENT

Jeremy Payne

Winchester CC

916-817-8106

SECRETARYTREASURER

Jesse Seguin

Lincoln Hills Golf Course

916-434-7200

PAST PRESIDENT

Jim Alwine

Bernardo Heights GC

DIRECTORS

Dave Bermudez

Del Rio Golf amp Country Club

209-341-2413

Scott McCullough

The Ridge Golf Course

530-888-7122 ext 2

Bob Franco

Van Buskirk Golf Course

209-598-0564

Kurtis Wolford

Cherry Island Golf Course

916-991-7659

Affiliate Representatives

Dave Wilber

Sierra Pacific Turf Supply

916-630-7600

Pete Bowman

Target Specialty Products

916-396-9394

FORE YOUR INFORMATION

Published by the Sierra Nevada Golf Course Superintendents Association

800 MOSSDALE RD LATHROP CA

209 234-1500 wwwbrownsandinccom

PRODUCTS- SERVICES AVAILABLE-

USGA Top Dressing Sand Deliveries by MAGNUM TRUCKING INC

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Bunker Sand

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FOR ALL YOUR MATERIAL NEEDS PLEASE CALL OUR OFFICE

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REGGIE POMICPIC ndash Director of Sales and Market

Cell 209 993-5211 E-mail reggiebrownsandinccom

Jeff Couwenhoven

Fore Your Information Page 3

ME E T IN G SC H EDU L E

October 22 2012 Plumas Lakes Golf Course

Host Superintendent Mike Kavaney

November 12 2012 Cameron Park CC

Host Superintendent Jessie Creencia CGCS

Annual Association Meeting amp Election

December 14 2012 River Boat Cruise on the Delta King

Dinner amp Entertainment

January 2013 Pending Confirmation of Date amp Location

February 4-8 2013 Annual Conference amp Show

San Diego CA

California Room USS Midway

Wednesday Feb 6 2012

March 2013 Pending Confirmation of Date amp Location

If you are interested in hosting a meeting email Jeremy Payne at jspturfhotmailcom or

Dave Wilber at davewilberyahoocom

Page 4 Fore Your Information

Grizzly Ranch C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1

organizing the event The rules format

and directions were easy to follow which

helped with the flow of the day and kept

the pace of play tolerable

Now to my favorite part of the ex-

periencehellipthe conditions and golf

course The golf course was setup to pro-

vide challenges and enjoyment for many

different skill sets Conditions were solid

from tee to green The greens were in phe-

nomenal shape and a pleasure to put on

except of course when 3 putting Some

tricky pin placements kept things exciting

and made you think twice when deciding on your approach

shot The Bob Cupp designed course blended in well with its

natural surroundings giving the golf course character and defini-

tion The layout and setup also provided the opportunity to use

every club in the bag

Food and service provided during and after the outing

was also outstanding All in all what a great event It takes a lot

of hard work and preparation to put together an event like

this We are extremely fortunate to have members like Mike in

our Association

Thanks again to Mike Baty and the Grizzly Ranch team

for their professionalism

and providing a quality

experience

Jesse Sequin

pure bentgrass

Course yardage is

6422 and 14 is the

signature hole

Mike has

some challenges

with the irrigation

system still being a

quick coupler with

night waterman

even for the greens

Bunkers need re-

building but with

limited budget this

is taking time

Interesting facts include a major ca-

tastrophe at the course in 1997 when the

Feather River levee system failed which sent

a wall of water that completely flooded the

golf course and surrounding areas The wa-

ter went to the roof of the clubhouse and

maintenance shop Then in 2007 the club

was struck again by a major catastrophe

when a fire burned the cart shed containing

the rental carts along with fifty member carts

Mike is supported in his new job by

his wife Carol who he has been married to

for 20 years They have a daughter Serena

18 who is attending junior college outside of

Santa Cruz and a son John 16 who is at-

tending high school Mike enjoys motorcy-

cle racing cross country and desert as well

as boating Mike is a member of the Placer

County Search and Rescue motorcycle team

Mike is looking forward to hosting

the October meeting and sharing his ldquoHidden

Jewelrdquo

Mike KavaneyPlumas Lake C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1

Michael Kaveney

Club House at Plumas Lake Golf amp Coun-

try Club

The SNGCSA is now on Facebook

and Twitter Check it out

Fore Your Information Page 5

Mike Farmen

559-709-6295

Bob Francischine

209-747-2206

Thor Larson

831-277-4356

Guy Auxer

303-601-2361

The Sierra Nevada GCSA

has been a proud supporter of Cali-

fornia turfgrass research for many

years The last two years have seen a

great increase in funding with mem-

ber generated proceeds from the

SampR Tournament and auction Just

last July you may have seen the

presentation of a $10000 check to

Bruce Williams who was represent-

ing the California Turf and Land-

scape Foundation That donation

went directly to Dr Jim Baird and

his staff funding experimental

turfgrass plots throughout California

The UCR Field Day is the

annual showcase of these studies and

attendance at this yearrsquos event sur-

passed previous numbers even

though it was a million degrees in

Riverside Actually it topped out at

103 but it felt so much hotter At-

tendees could find some shade and

cool refreshments under the main

tent while browsing the well attended

trade show Many affiliate members

set up shop and reported their appre-

ciation of the strong turnout I per-

sonally went home with multiple

contacts and plans for future course

improvements

Of course the real show is

the turf trials and there were plenty

to observe There were some NTEP

trials groundcover drought studies

and some work on buffalograss On

the turf disease and stress topic we

got a close look at dollar spot and

anthracnose management salinity

tolerance and nematode damage As

usual there were multiple studies on

irrigation practices including sub

surface irrigation ET regimes and

drip vs overhead After an excellent

lunch some education and a little

more time hiding in the shade we all

headed up to the Kikuyugrass study

before calling it a day

The work at UC Riverside is

only a small snapshot of the efforts

of Dr Baird and his team They also

manage trial locations throughout the

state including the

local courses of

many Sierra Ne-

vada members

Research in Cali-

fornia is moving in

the right direction

with the support of

the all local Chap-

ters the State As-

sociation the PGA

USGA and of

course the affiliate

companies Up-

coming programs like Rounds for

Research make the future even

brighter as California drives to be

one of the leaders in turfgrass re-

search and innovation Continue

your support of these programs and

try to make it down to the next field

day

2012 UCR L AN D SC APE amp TUR F F I E L D DAY Y O U R R E S E A R C H D O L L A R S A T W O R K

B Y J I M A L W I N E

Floratine

AquaVive

Bio-Amp

JRM

Farmload Distributors

Phoenix

AnaLync

Gro-Power

Aqua-Pucks

(800) 322-8417

Your Exclusive Northern California Dealers

Page 6 Fore Your Information

E-mail smithphelenachemicalcom

VM (800) 543-0630

Box2417

Mob (530) 864-6443

Paul K Smith Sales Representative

Pest Control Advisor Western Specialty Division

HELENA CHEMICAL COMPANY

3155 Southgate Lane

Chico Ca 95928

Bus (530) 342-4786

(800) 554-5703

Fax (530) 343-9047

Wilberrsquos Sierra Nevada News by Dave Wilber

Certainly the

passing of Jim

Alwine into the

realm of San

Diego will be

mourned by all

of us who

needed his wit

and wisdom on

a regular basis

However Jim

says that he may

be gone but not forgotten We will

miss Jim and wish him the very best at

Bernardo Heights CC Replacing Jim at Stockton

Golf and C C is a former right hand

of Jims Rob Williams Rob was run-

ning the show at Sunnyside CC in

Fresno prior to his selection

Mat Dunmyer has left Valley

Hi CC in Elk Grove to take a posi-

tion at Monarch Beach GC in Laguna

Nigel (thats So Cal once again)

Theres no truth in the rumor that Mat

just wanted to be neighbors with Al-

wine Mats number 1 Jeremiah

Stumph took the reins of VHCC for a

bit but quickly saw the light and ac-

cepted a position as Mats right hand at

Mats new gig leaving Valley Hi open

at the time of this writing

Changes at Edgewood Tahoe

with Brad Wunderlich taking over

Brad was the Assistant Super at

Montreaux in Reno

David Major is the new super

at Tierra Oaks GC in Redding

Dave comes to us from Shady Canyon

CC in the San Diego area and is a past

president of the San Diego Chapter

Lots of talk about manage-

ment groups and management consult-

ants in our area as lots of distressed

properties are being looked at More

than several supers and affiliates in

our area have received calls from man-

agement consulting types who are

looking for info and may be doing it

behind the current supers back Lets

all remember our ethics in

talking about other peo-

ples situations that we

probably really dont know

anything about

Lastly (and I

wonder why I always get

this job---old age I guess)

lets all remember that our monthly

meetings are places where we gather

network educate and enjoy the fruits

of association membership A monthly

meeting isnt really set up as an excuse

for you to try to become a rockstar and

party like one Leave that for Friday

nights in your hometown We should

never have a situation where we

would ever be embarrassed to bring an

official from our course or club to see

what the SNGCSA is all about after

all they may be approving the expense

of association membership and if it

just looks like an excuse to get silly

expect that line item to be on the cut

list And really isnt it a matter of pro-

fessional courtesy Sure have a good

time but remember who you are and

who we are Its hard enough to get

respect these days without pushing it

Pete Bowman and I are

happy to have the task of being on

point to set up meetings for next year

If youd like the honor to host a meet-

ing we would love to fulfill that

dream for you and can make it worth-

while for the club and the association

with our experience in event planning

In fact if Pete and I ever get tired of

doing what we do Im sure that

a Wedding Planning Service is in our

future

Dave Wilber

R E C R E A T I O N -F A M I LY T I M E B Y K U R T I S W O L F O R D

Fore Your Information Page 7

Lets face it being a golf

course superintendent is a difficult

job sometimes When we are in the

middle of the summer season the

pressure is on when its 100 degrees

out in the day with high night time

60 degree temperatures we work a

lot of crazy hours lose lots of sleep

etc Some of us are always con-

nected to the course via cell phones

With working those crazy hours we

sometimes miss out on or are late

to or cannot attend the things that

are most important to us ldquoFAMILY

Stuffrdquo

With the stresses that our

job produces it is very important

that we take care of the things that

matter the most Our families are the

people that help us decompress and

get our minds off our job for a

while ldquoFamily Timerdquo

I have had the pleasure of

working for a few superrsquos in my ca-

reer that have taught me this and a

few other things along the way On

a weekend day off schedule family

time Turn off the phone Spend the

time together doing whatever activ-

ity you all like to do Plan a day trip

The Sacramento region and the Si-

erra Nevada region have lots of

things to offer Most of us love the

outdoors If I had to be stuck inside I

would go crazy

Here is an idea that offers

something for just about everyone

and you can spend just a few hours

to all day doing it The Sacramento

Region has a jewel that is easy to

access and has lots of activities

Most of you know about the Ameri-

can River Parkway The American

River Parkway is 23 miles in length

with paved paths that are designated

as both a State and National Wild

and Scenic River There are 82 miles

+ of other maintained trails in the

American River Parkway that ex-

tend from Folsom Lake to Sacra-

mento These trails include bike

trails equestrian trails hiking trails

and others The Parkway incorpo-

rates four major parks Discovery

Park that is 302-acres in downtown

Sacramento Ancil Hoffman Park

that is 396-acres in Carmichael

River Bend Park which is 444-acres

in Rancho Cordova and William B

Pond Recreation Area at the end of

Arden Way Lake Natomas offers

boating (5 mph max) kayaking etc

Nimbus dam and Nimbus fish hatch-

ery have great events like tours and

the salmon festival Each of these

parks offers numerous activities

The American River is a world class

fishery for steel

head trout

striped bass

and salmon

The bike paths

offer miles of

riding time

(something I

personally use

twice a week)

All the parks

have play-

grounds for the

kids The Effie

Yeaw Nature

Center is great

for all ages and

is very educa-

tional The en-

tire parkway

offers nature

viewing

These

areas within the

parkway I per-

sonally use and

take my family

to anytime I

can Itrsquos where I go to de-stress de-

compress and to have family time

Go and utilize this area with your

family It offers something for eve-

ryone Have Fun and enjoy your

time away from work

Kurtis Wolford

Page 8 Fore Your Information

FROM T HE F I E L D J E F F J E N S E N G C S A A F I E L D S T A F F S O U T H W E S T R E G I O N

As we ap-

proach Novem-

ber and the

start of the

holiday season

I want to re-

mind Sierra

Nevada mem-

bers that next

yearrsquos GCSAA

Education Con-

ference and Golf Industry Show are

going to be hosted by your

neighbor to the south

The 2013 event will take

place at the San Diego Convention

Center The Education Conference

is scheduled for Feb 4-8 with the

Golf Industry Show taking place

Feb 6-7

This yearrsquos Education Con-

ference will feature over 100 semi-

nars providing you the in-depth

education you need to meet todays

challenges and prepare for tomor-

row 16 new seminars have been

added featuring a variety of topics

including turfgrass management

communications finance leader-

ship and technology Led by the

industrys most renowned research-

ers industry experts and superin-

tendents seminars are available in

full-day six-hour half-day and two

-hour formats Education points

are offered for completing the

seminars and enrollment is limited

so register early

The Golf Industry Show

presented by GCSAA and NGCOA

is an innovative trade show de-

signed for owners and operators of

golf facilities and golf course man-

agement professionals Featuring

the largest exhibit floor in the in-

dustry the event combines educa-

tion networking and solutions for

golf course superintendents equip-

ment managers ownersoperators

general managers chief operating

officers and architects and build-

ers

In addition a number of

networking events will be held dur-

ing the conference and show in-

cluding a Welcome Reception

Opening Session General Session

and the19th Annual GCSAA Colle-

giate Turf Bowl

Early conference and show

registration for GCSAA members

begins Nov 1 and can be com-

pleted online at www2gcsaaorg

conferenceregistration We look

(Continued on page 9)

Jeff Jensen

Fore Your Information Page 9

GCSANC 208

SNGCSA 305

CCGCSA (not enough

scores to qualify)

Long Drive Jim Ferrin

CGCS Sun City Roseville

(won a putter)

Closes to Pin Robert Wil-

liams Stockton Country

Club (won a driver)

TPC Stonebrae

Tournament Results

FROM THE FIELD

C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 8

forward to a big turnout from all of our California affiliated chapters and we

appreciate your support of this event as it returns to the West Coast

In closing I would be remiss if I didnrsquot mention the California GCSA

ldquoCalifornia Roomrdquo that will be held Wednesday Feb 6 during conference

and show The annual cocktail party and social will take place this year

aboard the aircraft carrier USS

Midway in San Diego Harbor

The Midway now serves as a na-

val aviation museum and will of-

fer members and guests the oppor-

tunity to tour the carrier and par-

ticipate in flight simulations and

other activities The event was

attended by nearly 600 partici-

pants last year in Las Vegas and this year promises to be even bigger More

information will be forthcoming and registration will be available online at

wwwcaliforniagcsaorg

As always if I can be of any assistance to you please email me at

jjensengcsaaorg and make sure to follow me on Twitter GCSAA_SW

Page 10 Fore Your Information

Russ Mitchell

Boardtronics

Turf Tire Express

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

Fore Your Information Page 11

2012 DELEGATES MEETING B Y J E F F C O U W E N H O V E N

The 2012 delegates meet-

ing was a adventurous one from

before I left to the time I got back

from it Those details can be

spared but the experience I re-

ceived from attending to represent

the SNGCSA was paramount to

understanding more about what it

is that the GCSAA is doing to

help promote our profession In

the next few pages I will be ad-

dressing many of the highlights

and important messages sent

home for myself to distribute to

the members of our association

Sandy Queen the sitting GCSAA

president gave an overview and a

ldquoState of the Associationrdquo address

highlighted by a few things

First he shared informa-

tion about golfer perception of our

profession and the results from

the survey taken were rather

shocking but yet exciting Golf

course superintendents according

to the McMahon survey report

indicated that 79 of golfers felt

that Golf Course Superintendents

are the key to economic success

of our facilities That was the

highest amongst all professionals

at our facilities 62 of all golf-

ers polled felt that we were the

key to golfer satisfaction which

was also the highest amongst all

professionals at our facilities

96 of our employers felt that

Golf Course Superintendents were

the key to the economic vitality of

our facilities tops of all profes-

sionals at our facilities Our over-

all ranking tied with the club man-

agers in level of importance at our

facilities

Second Mr Queen dis-

cussed some things the GCSAA

board are trying to do to raise

funding through the EIFG our

5013c organization that helps the

GCSAA operate provide re-

search and scholarships to our

members and students He also

bundled that note with the fact

that the national headquarters is in

need of repairs and updating and

that the headquarters is going to

undergo a facelift of some sorts

The projects range from improv-

ing the exterior infrastructure

Interior infrastructure and land-

scaping updates that will help pre-

sent our profession in a better

manner The whole cost is to be

estimated at 19 million dollars

This seems like a lot but

when you think about it we own

our building and nothing has

been done to update the facility in

twenty years I will be presenting

the details of the update at our

annual meeting

Following Mr Queenrsquos

address CEO Rhett Evans gave us

a status of the industry address

that highlighted many items that

regard the golf industry as a

whole They ranged from ten

year comparisons of Rounds

course opening and closings as

well as the status of our mainte-

nance budgets He emphasized

the importance of the GCSAA

surveys some of us participate in

every year If we donrsquot partici-

pate we arenrsquot represented in the

data and we might not get signifi-

cant data to accurately provide a

true snapshot of our end of the

business Those details will be

shared at the annual meeting in

November as well

Mr Evans also touched

upon how we are funded how we

spend our funding and what they

are looking to do in the near fu-

ture to help promote and serve

our professional organization

from a staff and operational level

Again these details are going to

be provided in more depth at our

annual meeting in November

He finished off with putting the

(Continued on page 12)

Verti Drain

Service

Bruce Christensen

Minden NV 89423

2754 Kayne Ave Christensen

Turf Products

Christensen Turf Products

Tel (775) 450-2761

Fax (775-267-9382

Email becgolfearthlinknet

Page 12 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 1

GCSAA mission The key points

in this segment were as follows

Serve the membership

Advance our profession

Enhance the enjoyment growth

and vitality of golf

Increase revenues and operating

efficiencies

Following Mr Evans Mr Sean

Hoolehan the chair of the Member

Standards committee gave a pres-

entation of the results of a study

that has been analyzing three

things

Determine if the original goals

of the Professional Develop

Initiative have or are being

met

Determine if GCSAA member-

ships standards have had any

unintended consequences for

the association and its members

that should be addressed mov-

ing forward

Make recommendations on a

future course of action for the

GCSAA in regards to member-

ship standards

The committee went through eve-

rything from our bylaws affiliate

chapter agreement to the member-

ship growth and classification data

available In a nutshell they found

some things that have been occur-

ring that the GCSAA did not think

were going to happen when PDI

was initiated and they range from

the loss of Class A members to sal-

ary information regarding the clas-

sifications The detail of the report

will be provided at the annual

meeting in November Their rec-

ommendations will be provided as

well at the annual meeting for our

membership

Mr Bill Maynard chair of

the membership committee went

through the upcoming affiliate

chapter agreement that we approve

here at the SNGCSA every three

years to be a affiliated chapter of

the GCSAA It was announced

following some discussion that

there will be a one year extension

of the current agreement to get

some more data from the current

affiliated chapters to better imple-

ment the new agreement in the

coming year The reason for this is

that there will be some verbiage

change and there were quite a few

chapters that felt it necessary to

need more time to correctly change

their bylaws and get a membership

vote to approve the changes for the

next agreement This will be a

topic for discussion in the coming

year I do not think it will affect

our chapter but I will research this

matter further and discuss it with

our board

Mr Randquist presented a

proposal for the GCSAA to raise

our dues $25 dollars This would

cover a CPI increase as well as

some operating expenses with rela-

tion to our life insurance provided

through the GCSAA membership

Further details will be discussed at

the annual meeting

We then got to meet the candidates

for the upcoming election that will

occur at GIS Everyone got five

minutes at the podium to give us all

a first impression

Mr Pat Finlen gave us a

vision for his Presidency high-

lighted the importance of the EIFG

and strategies for its growth and

future to help sustain its future He

touched upon the growth of the

GCSAA into Asia and other re-

gions of the world He briefly

noted that the applications for certi-

fication for the first time since PDI

are up

Our current secretarytreasurer was

not present at the meeting due to

family medical issues He will be

(Continued on page 13)

Page 13 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 2

the incoming Vice president

There are two candidates for the

Secretary Treasurer position This

will create a little drama on the floor

of the election since one of the can-

didates will not be elected Both are

current sitting Board members and

they both expressed interest to con-

tinue sitting on the board if not

elected The one that is not elected

into the officer position will need to

be nominated on the floor of the an-

nual election to be eligible for one of

the three open BOD positions

There are then five candidates for

three positions if that occurs The

candidates that are running for that

position are Peter Grass CGCS and

John J OrsquoKeefe CGCS Both offer

up a strong message and I will high-

light them at the upcoming annual

meeting

For the three BOD positions open

there are four candidates

John Fulling CGCS from Kala-

mazoo Country Club in

Kalamazoo Michigan

John Walker from Blackhorse

Golf Club in Cypress Texas

Mark Jordan CGCS from West-

field Group Country Club in

Westfield Center Ohio

Darren J Davis from Olde Flor-

ida Golf Club in Naples

Florida

Out of the four candidates

Darren Davis is the only incumbent

sitting on the current board All will

be highlighted more in the upcoming

annual meeting

On Sunday we heard more

about the Environmental Institute for

Golf or the EIFG The focus is be-

ing made on how to get more mem-

ber support to help its marketability

with industry partners Currently the

support saturation is around 19

amongst current active members

The target has been set to get 51 of

current members to donate to the

EIFG So they have a long way to

go Some ideas to boost funding are

the sale of a superintendents life sup-

port bag These backpacks will have

essential tools and other little trin-

kets in them to be up for sale on the

EIFG website to help boost revenue

The other ideas are through the now

launched Rounds for Research pro-

gram from which many of our mem-

bersrsquo clubs have donated to If you

do not know where to look you can

reach the R4R website from the

GCSAA website or look for it on the

actual auction sit at

wwwbiddingforgoodcom

We received a update from

the Board policy Overview commit-

tee all the GCSAA field Staff repre-

sentatives another update from CEO

Rhett Evans and most

importantly from

Chava McKeel and

John OrsquoKeefe with

regards to the Public

Policy committee It is

here that Chava let us

all know the priority

issues that the GCSAA

is focusing on They

are as follows

American with Dis-

abilities Act

Fertilizers

Labor and Immigration

Pesticides

Value of Golf

Water Management

There will be some slides devoted to

what they have been fighting for at

the annual meeting and we will be

seeing what this group has been ac-

tively participating in at the National

level as well as at the State level for

our profession

So as you can see there was

a lot of information divulged for a

one and a half day meeting There

will be even more information

passed along in the upcoming

months I hope as your delegate that

you bring to me any hot button is-

sues and other items for discussion

as time moves on and I will be sure

to communicate these properly Feel

free to contact me at

jeffcouwenhovengmailcom or on

my phone at 559-250-0694

Page 14 Fore Your Information

GR I ZZ LY RAN CH H I GH L I G HT S

Pictured above hamming it up are Jeff Cou-

wenhoven with Scott Kotrc Ernesto Ibarra

and Nate Weber at right is Joe Kurung

James Slater Jason DeHerrera and Jason

Collins

The day was perfect and

friends had a time to

share and catch up on

things At right are

SNGCSA President Jeff

Couwenhoven and Host

Superintendent Mike

Baty

Pictured below are Sean Christensen

Bruce Christensen Terry Williams and

Craig Heitman

Page 15 Fore Your Information

2012 PRE S ID E NT rsquoS CUP CH AM PION S

2012 President Cup

Winner

Wes Leith

Tournament Winners

Closest to the Pin 2

Terry Smith (Above right)

Longest Drive Pat Smyth

(Above)

Most Accurate Drive

Steve Byrne (left)

(Above) Terry Williams

with Jeff Couwenhoven

(Below) Christina Bolsko Paul Watts

Page 2: September/October Issue of Fore Your Information

I hope you enjoy

this latest edition of our

association newsletter We

are trying some new things

with articles to allow you

the member a chance to

learn something about our

region you might have

known but might not have

taken advantage of in the

past This is the time for

family friends and fellow-

ship

We will still have

our normal articles but for

the next few months we will

add an article that has ac-

tivities day trips etc for

you to try out and enjoy

Thank you Kurtis for the

article and I hope we as

members try it out

I would also like to

take the time to thank the

association for making my

time as the President of our

association a rewarding

one I feel as though we

have accomplished a lot

Some of which are the ini-

tiatives we have supported

the amount of money that

we have been able to donate

to research the scholarships

we have provided and we

have put our association in

a solid financial position for

our future Participation

was

good at our monthly meet-

ings and we have been able

to maintain a strong and

stable membership

Lets all remember

to thank the support staff as

well Irene Kim and every-

one else at the association

office have helped make

our association what it is

today So letrsquos all finish our

aerations over seeding

other fall activities and pro-

jects finish off strong and

spend our time to enjoying

the finer things in life

Jeff

Page 2

P R E S I D E N T rsquo S ME S S A G E B Y J E F F C O U W E N H O V E N

Fore Your Information

Fore Your Information

EDITOR

Jim Alwine

Bernardo Heights GC

OFFICE

SNGCSA

5322 N Leonard

Clovis CA 93619

559-298-6262

Fax 559-298-6957

sngcsaaaolcom

PRESIDENT

Jeff Couwenhoven

Resort at Squaw Creek

916-771-7370

VICE PRESIDENT

Jeremy Payne

Winchester CC

916-817-8106

SECRETARYTREASURER

Jesse Seguin

Lincoln Hills Golf Course

916-434-7200

PAST PRESIDENT

Jim Alwine

Bernardo Heights GC

DIRECTORS

Dave Bermudez

Del Rio Golf amp Country Club

209-341-2413

Scott McCullough

The Ridge Golf Course

530-888-7122 ext 2

Bob Franco

Van Buskirk Golf Course

209-598-0564

Kurtis Wolford

Cherry Island Golf Course

916-991-7659

Affiliate Representatives

Dave Wilber

Sierra Pacific Turf Supply

916-630-7600

Pete Bowman

Target Specialty Products

916-396-9394

FORE YOUR INFORMATION

Published by the Sierra Nevada Golf Course Superintendents Association

800 MOSSDALE RD LATHROP CA

209 234-1500 wwwbrownsandinccom

PRODUCTS- SERVICES AVAILABLE-

USGA Top Dressing Sand Deliveries by MAGNUM TRUCKING INC

Greens Top Dressing Sand Blend Materials to Customers Specifications

Bunker Sand

Profile Sand Blends

0-0-50 Kiln Dried Sand blends

Kiln Dried USGA Sand - 3000lbs Super Sacks

Dakota Peat Sand Blends

Peat Inc Sand Blends

Pea Gravel

Top Soil

FOR ALL YOUR MATERIAL NEEDS PLEASE CALL OUR OFFICE

OR

REGGIE POMICPIC ndash Director of Sales and Market

Cell 209 993-5211 E-mail reggiebrownsandinccom

Jeff Couwenhoven

Fore Your Information Page 3

ME E T IN G SC H EDU L E

October 22 2012 Plumas Lakes Golf Course

Host Superintendent Mike Kavaney

November 12 2012 Cameron Park CC

Host Superintendent Jessie Creencia CGCS

Annual Association Meeting amp Election

December 14 2012 River Boat Cruise on the Delta King

Dinner amp Entertainment

January 2013 Pending Confirmation of Date amp Location

February 4-8 2013 Annual Conference amp Show

San Diego CA

California Room USS Midway

Wednesday Feb 6 2012

March 2013 Pending Confirmation of Date amp Location

If you are interested in hosting a meeting email Jeremy Payne at jspturfhotmailcom or

Dave Wilber at davewilberyahoocom

Page 4 Fore Your Information

Grizzly Ranch C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1

organizing the event The rules format

and directions were easy to follow which

helped with the flow of the day and kept

the pace of play tolerable

Now to my favorite part of the ex-

periencehellipthe conditions and golf

course The golf course was setup to pro-

vide challenges and enjoyment for many

different skill sets Conditions were solid

from tee to green The greens were in phe-

nomenal shape and a pleasure to put on

except of course when 3 putting Some

tricky pin placements kept things exciting

and made you think twice when deciding on your approach

shot The Bob Cupp designed course blended in well with its

natural surroundings giving the golf course character and defini-

tion The layout and setup also provided the opportunity to use

every club in the bag

Food and service provided during and after the outing

was also outstanding All in all what a great event It takes a lot

of hard work and preparation to put together an event like

this We are extremely fortunate to have members like Mike in

our Association

Thanks again to Mike Baty and the Grizzly Ranch team

for their professionalism

and providing a quality

experience

Jesse Sequin

pure bentgrass

Course yardage is

6422 and 14 is the

signature hole

Mike has

some challenges

with the irrigation

system still being a

quick coupler with

night waterman

even for the greens

Bunkers need re-

building but with

limited budget this

is taking time

Interesting facts include a major ca-

tastrophe at the course in 1997 when the

Feather River levee system failed which sent

a wall of water that completely flooded the

golf course and surrounding areas The wa-

ter went to the roof of the clubhouse and

maintenance shop Then in 2007 the club

was struck again by a major catastrophe

when a fire burned the cart shed containing

the rental carts along with fifty member carts

Mike is supported in his new job by

his wife Carol who he has been married to

for 20 years They have a daughter Serena

18 who is attending junior college outside of

Santa Cruz and a son John 16 who is at-

tending high school Mike enjoys motorcy-

cle racing cross country and desert as well

as boating Mike is a member of the Placer

County Search and Rescue motorcycle team

Mike is looking forward to hosting

the October meeting and sharing his ldquoHidden

Jewelrdquo

Mike KavaneyPlumas Lake C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1

Michael Kaveney

Club House at Plumas Lake Golf amp Coun-

try Club

The SNGCSA is now on Facebook

and Twitter Check it out

Fore Your Information Page 5

Mike Farmen

559-709-6295

Bob Francischine

209-747-2206

Thor Larson

831-277-4356

Guy Auxer

303-601-2361

The Sierra Nevada GCSA

has been a proud supporter of Cali-

fornia turfgrass research for many

years The last two years have seen a

great increase in funding with mem-

ber generated proceeds from the

SampR Tournament and auction Just

last July you may have seen the

presentation of a $10000 check to

Bruce Williams who was represent-

ing the California Turf and Land-

scape Foundation That donation

went directly to Dr Jim Baird and

his staff funding experimental

turfgrass plots throughout California

The UCR Field Day is the

annual showcase of these studies and

attendance at this yearrsquos event sur-

passed previous numbers even

though it was a million degrees in

Riverside Actually it topped out at

103 but it felt so much hotter At-

tendees could find some shade and

cool refreshments under the main

tent while browsing the well attended

trade show Many affiliate members

set up shop and reported their appre-

ciation of the strong turnout I per-

sonally went home with multiple

contacts and plans for future course

improvements

Of course the real show is

the turf trials and there were plenty

to observe There were some NTEP

trials groundcover drought studies

and some work on buffalograss On

the turf disease and stress topic we

got a close look at dollar spot and

anthracnose management salinity

tolerance and nematode damage As

usual there were multiple studies on

irrigation practices including sub

surface irrigation ET regimes and

drip vs overhead After an excellent

lunch some education and a little

more time hiding in the shade we all

headed up to the Kikuyugrass study

before calling it a day

The work at UC Riverside is

only a small snapshot of the efforts

of Dr Baird and his team They also

manage trial locations throughout the

state including the

local courses of

many Sierra Ne-

vada members

Research in Cali-

fornia is moving in

the right direction

with the support of

the all local Chap-

ters the State As-

sociation the PGA

USGA and of

course the affiliate

companies Up-

coming programs like Rounds for

Research make the future even

brighter as California drives to be

one of the leaders in turfgrass re-

search and innovation Continue

your support of these programs and

try to make it down to the next field

day

2012 UCR L AN D SC APE amp TUR F F I E L D DAY Y O U R R E S E A R C H D O L L A R S A T W O R K

B Y J I M A L W I N E

Floratine

AquaVive

Bio-Amp

JRM

Farmload Distributors

Phoenix

AnaLync

Gro-Power

Aqua-Pucks

(800) 322-8417

Your Exclusive Northern California Dealers

Page 6 Fore Your Information

E-mail smithphelenachemicalcom

VM (800) 543-0630

Box2417

Mob (530) 864-6443

Paul K Smith Sales Representative

Pest Control Advisor Western Specialty Division

HELENA CHEMICAL COMPANY

3155 Southgate Lane

Chico Ca 95928

Bus (530) 342-4786

(800) 554-5703

Fax (530) 343-9047

Wilberrsquos Sierra Nevada News by Dave Wilber

Certainly the

passing of Jim

Alwine into the

realm of San

Diego will be

mourned by all

of us who

needed his wit

and wisdom on

a regular basis

However Jim

says that he may

be gone but not forgotten We will

miss Jim and wish him the very best at

Bernardo Heights CC Replacing Jim at Stockton

Golf and C C is a former right hand

of Jims Rob Williams Rob was run-

ning the show at Sunnyside CC in

Fresno prior to his selection

Mat Dunmyer has left Valley

Hi CC in Elk Grove to take a posi-

tion at Monarch Beach GC in Laguna

Nigel (thats So Cal once again)

Theres no truth in the rumor that Mat

just wanted to be neighbors with Al-

wine Mats number 1 Jeremiah

Stumph took the reins of VHCC for a

bit but quickly saw the light and ac-

cepted a position as Mats right hand at

Mats new gig leaving Valley Hi open

at the time of this writing

Changes at Edgewood Tahoe

with Brad Wunderlich taking over

Brad was the Assistant Super at

Montreaux in Reno

David Major is the new super

at Tierra Oaks GC in Redding

Dave comes to us from Shady Canyon

CC in the San Diego area and is a past

president of the San Diego Chapter

Lots of talk about manage-

ment groups and management consult-

ants in our area as lots of distressed

properties are being looked at More

than several supers and affiliates in

our area have received calls from man-

agement consulting types who are

looking for info and may be doing it

behind the current supers back Lets

all remember our ethics in

talking about other peo-

ples situations that we

probably really dont know

anything about

Lastly (and I

wonder why I always get

this job---old age I guess)

lets all remember that our monthly

meetings are places where we gather

network educate and enjoy the fruits

of association membership A monthly

meeting isnt really set up as an excuse

for you to try to become a rockstar and

party like one Leave that for Friday

nights in your hometown We should

never have a situation where we

would ever be embarrassed to bring an

official from our course or club to see

what the SNGCSA is all about after

all they may be approving the expense

of association membership and if it

just looks like an excuse to get silly

expect that line item to be on the cut

list And really isnt it a matter of pro-

fessional courtesy Sure have a good

time but remember who you are and

who we are Its hard enough to get

respect these days without pushing it

Pete Bowman and I are

happy to have the task of being on

point to set up meetings for next year

If youd like the honor to host a meet-

ing we would love to fulfill that

dream for you and can make it worth-

while for the club and the association

with our experience in event planning

In fact if Pete and I ever get tired of

doing what we do Im sure that

a Wedding Planning Service is in our

future

Dave Wilber

R E C R E A T I O N -F A M I LY T I M E B Y K U R T I S W O L F O R D

Fore Your Information Page 7

Lets face it being a golf

course superintendent is a difficult

job sometimes When we are in the

middle of the summer season the

pressure is on when its 100 degrees

out in the day with high night time

60 degree temperatures we work a

lot of crazy hours lose lots of sleep

etc Some of us are always con-

nected to the course via cell phones

With working those crazy hours we

sometimes miss out on or are late

to or cannot attend the things that

are most important to us ldquoFAMILY

Stuffrdquo

With the stresses that our

job produces it is very important

that we take care of the things that

matter the most Our families are the

people that help us decompress and

get our minds off our job for a

while ldquoFamily Timerdquo

I have had the pleasure of

working for a few superrsquos in my ca-

reer that have taught me this and a

few other things along the way On

a weekend day off schedule family

time Turn off the phone Spend the

time together doing whatever activ-

ity you all like to do Plan a day trip

The Sacramento region and the Si-

erra Nevada region have lots of

things to offer Most of us love the

outdoors If I had to be stuck inside I

would go crazy

Here is an idea that offers

something for just about everyone

and you can spend just a few hours

to all day doing it The Sacramento

Region has a jewel that is easy to

access and has lots of activities

Most of you know about the Ameri-

can River Parkway The American

River Parkway is 23 miles in length

with paved paths that are designated

as both a State and National Wild

and Scenic River There are 82 miles

+ of other maintained trails in the

American River Parkway that ex-

tend from Folsom Lake to Sacra-

mento These trails include bike

trails equestrian trails hiking trails

and others The Parkway incorpo-

rates four major parks Discovery

Park that is 302-acres in downtown

Sacramento Ancil Hoffman Park

that is 396-acres in Carmichael

River Bend Park which is 444-acres

in Rancho Cordova and William B

Pond Recreation Area at the end of

Arden Way Lake Natomas offers

boating (5 mph max) kayaking etc

Nimbus dam and Nimbus fish hatch-

ery have great events like tours and

the salmon festival Each of these

parks offers numerous activities

The American River is a world class

fishery for steel

head trout

striped bass

and salmon

The bike paths

offer miles of

riding time

(something I

personally use

twice a week)

All the parks

have play-

grounds for the

kids The Effie

Yeaw Nature

Center is great

for all ages and

is very educa-

tional The en-

tire parkway

offers nature

viewing

These

areas within the

parkway I per-

sonally use and

take my family

to anytime I

can Itrsquos where I go to de-stress de-

compress and to have family time

Go and utilize this area with your

family It offers something for eve-

ryone Have Fun and enjoy your

time away from work

Kurtis Wolford

Page 8 Fore Your Information

FROM T HE F I E L D J E F F J E N S E N G C S A A F I E L D S T A F F S O U T H W E S T R E G I O N

As we ap-

proach Novem-

ber and the

start of the

holiday season

I want to re-

mind Sierra

Nevada mem-

bers that next

yearrsquos GCSAA

Education Con-

ference and Golf Industry Show are

going to be hosted by your

neighbor to the south

The 2013 event will take

place at the San Diego Convention

Center The Education Conference

is scheduled for Feb 4-8 with the

Golf Industry Show taking place

Feb 6-7

This yearrsquos Education Con-

ference will feature over 100 semi-

nars providing you the in-depth

education you need to meet todays

challenges and prepare for tomor-

row 16 new seminars have been

added featuring a variety of topics

including turfgrass management

communications finance leader-

ship and technology Led by the

industrys most renowned research-

ers industry experts and superin-

tendents seminars are available in

full-day six-hour half-day and two

-hour formats Education points

are offered for completing the

seminars and enrollment is limited

so register early

The Golf Industry Show

presented by GCSAA and NGCOA

is an innovative trade show de-

signed for owners and operators of

golf facilities and golf course man-

agement professionals Featuring

the largest exhibit floor in the in-

dustry the event combines educa-

tion networking and solutions for

golf course superintendents equip-

ment managers ownersoperators

general managers chief operating

officers and architects and build-

ers

In addition a number of

networking events will be held dur-

ing the conference and show in-

cluding a Welcome Reception

Opening Session General Session

and the19th Annual GCSAA Colle-

giate Turf Bowl

Early conference and show

registration for GCSAA members

begins Nov 1 and can be com-

pleted online at www2gcsaaorg

conferenceregistration We look

(Continued on page 9)

Jeff Jensen

Fore Your Information Page 9

GCSANC 208

SNGCSA 305

CCGCSA (not enough

scores to qualify)

Long Drive Jim Ferrin

CGCS Sun City Roseville

(won a putter)

Closes to Pin Robert Wil-

liams Stockton Country

Club (won a driver)

TPC Stonebrae

Tournament Results

FROM THE FIELD

C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 8

forward to a big turnout from all of our California affiliated chapters and we

appreciate your support of this event as it returns to the West Coast

In closing I would be remiss if I didnrsquot mention the California GCSA

ldquoCalifornia Roomrdquo that will be held Wednesday Feb 6 during conference

and show The annual cocktail party and social will take place this year

aboard the aircraft carrier USS

Midway in San Diego Harbor

The Midway now serves as a na-

val aviation museum and will of-

fer members and guests the oppor-

tunity to tour the carrier and par-

ticipate in flight simulations and

other activities The event was

attended by nearly 600 partici-

pants last year in Las Vegas and this year promises to be even bigger More

information will be forthcoming and registration will be available online at

wwwcaliforniagcsaorg

As always if I can be of any assistance to you please email me at

jjensengcsaaorg and make sure to follow me on Twitter GCSAA_SW

Page 10 Fore Your Information

Russ Mitchell

Boardtronics

Turf Tire Express

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

Fore Your Information Page 11

2012 DELEGATES MEETING B Y J E F F C O U W E N H O V E N

The 2012 delegates meet-

ing was a adventurous one from

before I left to the time I got back

from it Those details can be

spared but the experience I re-

ceived from attending to represent

the SNGCSA was paramount to

understanding more about what it

is that the GCSAA is doing to

help promote our profession In

the next few pages I will be ad-

dressing many of the highlights

and important messages sent

home for myself to distribute to

the members of our association

Sandy Queen the sitting GCSAA

president gave an overview and a

ldquoState of the Associationrdquo address

highlighted by a few things

First he shared informa-

tion about golfer perception of our

profession and the results from

the survey taken were rather

shocking but yet exciting Golf

course superintendents according

to the McMahon survey report

indicated that 79 of golfers felt

that Golf Course Superintendents

are the key to economic success

of our facilities That was the

highest amongst all professionals

at our facilities 62 of all golf-

ers polled felt that we were the

key to golfer satisfaction which

was also the highest amongst all

professionals at our facilities

96 of our employers felt that

Golf Course Superintendents were

the key to the economic vitality of

our facilities tops of all profes-

sionals at our facilities Our over-

all ranking tied with the club man-

agers in level of importance at our

facilities

Second Mr Queen dis-

cussed some things the GCSAA

board are trying to do to raise

funding through the EIFG our

5013c organization that helps the

GCSAA operate provide re-

search and scholarships to our

members and students He also

bundled that note with the fact

that the national headquarters is in

need of repairs and updating and

that the headquarters is going to

undergo a facelift of some sorts

The projects range from improv-

ing the exterior infrastructure

Interior infrastructure and land-

scaping updates that will help pre-

sent our profession in a better

manner The whole cost is to be

estimated at 19 million dollars

This seems like a lot but

when you think about it we own

our building and nothing has

been done to update the facility in

twenty years I will be presenting

the details of the update at our

annual meeting

Following Mr Queenrsquos

address CEO Rhett Evans gave us

a status of the industry address

that highlighted many items that

regard the golf industry as a

whole They ranged from ten

year comparisons of Rounds

course opening and closings as

well as the status of our mainte-

nance budgets He emphasized

the importance of the GCSAA

surveys some of us participate in

every year If we donrsquot partici-

pate we arenrsquot represented in the

data and we might not get signifi-

cant data to accurately provide a

true snapshot of our end of the

business Those details will be

shared at the annual meeting in

November as well

Mr Evans also touched

upon how we are funded how we

spend our funding and what they

are looking to do in the near fu-

ture to help promote and serve

our professional organization

from a staff and operational level

Again these details are going to

be provided in more depth at our

annual meeting in November

He finished off with putting the

(Continued on page 12)

Verti Drain

Service

Bruce Christensen

Minden NV 89423

2754 Kayne Ave Christensen

Turf Products

Christensen Turf Products

Tel (775) 450-2761

Fax (775-267-9382

Email becgolfearthlinknet

Page 12 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 1

GCSAA mission The key points

in this segment were as follows

Serve the membership

Advance our profession

Enhance the enjoyment growth

and vitality of golf

Increase revenues and operating

efficiencies

Following Mr Evans Mr Sean

Hoolehan the chair of the Member

Standards committee gave a pres-

entation of the results of a study

that has been analyzing three

things

Determine if the original goals

of the Professional Develop

Initiative have or are being

met

Determine if GCSAA member-

ships standards have had any

unintended consequences for

the association and its members

that should be addressed mov-

ing forward

Make recommendations on a

future course of action for the

GCSAA in regards to member-

ship standards

The committee went through eve-

rything from our bylaws affiliate

chapter agreement to the member-

ship growth and classification data

available In a nutshell they found

some things that have been occur-

ring that the GCSAA did not think

were going to happen when PDI

was initiated and they range from

the loss of Class A members to sal-

ary information regarding the clas-

sifications The detail of the report

will be provided at the annual

meeting in November Their rec-

ommendations will be provided as

well at the annual meeting for our

membership

Mr Bill Maynard chair of

the membership committee went

through the upcoming affiliate

chapter agreement that we approve

here at the SNGCSA every three

years to be a affiliated chapter of

the GCSAA It was announced

following some discussion that

there will be a one year extension

of the current agreement to get

some more data from the current

affiliated chapters to better imple-

ment the new agreement in the

coming year The reason for this is

that there will be some verbiage

change and there were quite a few

chapters that felt it necessary to

need more time to correctly change

their bylaws and get a membership

vote to approve the changes for the

next agreement This will be a

topic for discussion in the coming

year I do not think it will affect

our chapter but I will research this

matter further and discuss it with

our board

Mr Randquist presented a

proposal for the GCSAA to raise

our dues $25 dollars This would

cover a CPI increase as well as

some operating expenses with rela-

tion to our life insurance provided

through the GCSAA membership

Further details will be discussed at

the annual meeting

We then got to meet the candidates

for the upcoming election that will

occur at GIS Everyone got five

minutes at the podium to give us all

a first impression

Mr Pat Finlen gave us a

vision for his Presidency high-

lighted the importance of the EIFG

and strategies for its growth and

future to help sustain its future He

touched upon the growth of the

GCSAA into Asia and other re-

gions of the world He briefly

noted that the applications for certi-

fication for the first time since PDI

are up

Our current secretarytreasurer was

not present at the meeting due to

family medical issues He will be

(Continued on page 13)

Page 13 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 2

the incoming Vice president

There are two candidates for the

Secretary Treasurer position This

will create a little drama on the floor

of the election since one of the can-

didates will not be elected Both are

current sitting Board members and

they both expressed interest to con-

tinue sitting on the board if not

elected The one that is not elected

into the officer position will need to

be nominated on the floor of the an-

nual election to be eligible for one of

the three open BOD positions

There are then five candidates for

three positions if that occurs The

candidates that are running for that

position are Peter Grass CGCS and

John J OrsquoKeefe CGCS Both offer

up a strong message and I will high-

light them at the upcoming annual

meeting

For the three BOD positions open

there are four candidates

John Fulling CGCS from Kala-

mazoo Country Club in

Kalamazoo Michigan

John Walker from Blackhorse

Golf Club in Cypress Texas

Mark Jordan CGCS from West-

field Group Country Club in

Westfield Center Ohio

Darren J Davis from Olde Flor-

ida Golf Club in Naples

Florida

Out of the four candidates

Darren Davis is the only incumbent

sitting on the current board All will

be highlighted more in the upcoming

annual meeting

On Sunday we heard more

about the Environmental Institute for

Golf or the EIFG The focus is be-

ing made on how to get more mem-

ber support to help its marketability

with industry partners Currently the

support saturation is around 19

amongst current active members

The target has been set to get 51 of

current members to donate to the

EIFG So they have a long way to

go Some ideas to boost funding are

the sale of a superintendents life sup-

port bag These backpacks will have

essential tools and other little trin-

kets in them to be up for sale on the

EIFG website to help boost revenue

The other ideas are through the now

launched Rounds for Research pro-

gram from which many of our mem-

bersrsquo clubs have donated to If you

do not know where to look you can

reach the R4R website from the

GCSAA website or look for it on the

actual auction sit at

wwwbiddingforgoodcom

We received a update from

the Board policy Overview commit-

tee all the GCSAA field Staff repre-

sentatives another update from CEO

Rhett Evans and most

importantly from

Chava McKeel and

John OrsquoKeefe with

regards to the Public

Policy committee It is

here that Chava let us

all know the priority

issues that the GCSAA

is focusing on They

are as follows

American with Dis-

abilities Act

Fertilizers

Labor and Immigration

Pesticides

Value of Golf

Water Management

There will be some slides devoted to

what they have been fighting for at

the annual meeting and we will be

seeing what this group has been ac-

tively participating in at the National

level as well as at the State level for

our profession

So as you can see there was

a lot of information divulged for a

one and a half day meeting There

will be even more information

passed along in the upcoming

months I hope as your delegate that

you bring to me any hot button is-

sues and other items for discussion

as time moves on and I will be sure

to communicate these properly Feel

free to contact me at

jeffcouwenhovengmailcom or on

my phone at 559-250-0694

Page 14 Fore Your Information

GR I ZZ LY RAN CH H I GH L I G HT S

Pictured above hamming it up are Jeff Cou-

wenhoven with Scott Kotrc Ernesto Ibarra

and Nate Weber at right is Joe Kurung

James Slater Jason DeHerrera and Jason

Collins

The day was perfect and

friends had a time to

share and catch up on

things At right are

SNGCSA President Jeff

Couwenhoven and Host

Superintendent Mike

Baty

Pictured below are Sean Christensen

Bruce Christensen Terry Williams and

Craig Heitman

Page 15 Fore Your Information

2012 PRE S ID E NT rsquoS CUP CH AM PION S

2012 President Cup

Winner

Wes Leith

Tournament Winners

Closest to the Pin 2

Terry Smith (Above right)

Longest Drive Pat Smyth

(Above)

Most Accurate Drive

Steve Byrne (left)

(Above) Terry Williams

with Jeff Couwenhoven

(Below) Christina Bolsko Paul Watts

Page 3: September/October Issue of Fore Your Information

Fore Your Information Page 3

ME E T IN G SC H EDU L E

October 22 2012 Plumas Lakes Golf Course

Host Superintendent Mike Kavaney

November 12 2012 Cameron Park CC

Host Superintendent Jessie Creencia CGCS

Annual Association Meeting amp Election

December 14 2012 River Boat Cruise on the Delta King

Dinner amp Entertainment

January 2013 Pending Confirmation of Date amp Location

February 4-8 2013 Annual Conference amp Show

San Diego CA

California Room USS Midway

Wednesday Feb 6 2012

March 2013 Pending Confirmation of Date amp Location

If you are interested in hosting a meeting email Jeremy Payne at jspturfhotmailcom or

Dave Wilber at davewilberyahoocom

Page 4 Fore Your Information

Grizzly Ranch C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1

organizing the event The rules format

and directions were easy to follow which

helped with the flow of the day and kept

the pace of play tolerable

Now to my favorite part of the ex-

periencehellipthe conditions and golf

course The golf course was setup to pro-

vide challenges and enjoyment for many

different skill sets Conditions were solid

from tee to green The greens were in phe-

nomenal shape and a pleasure to put on

except of course when 3 putting Some

tricky pin placements kept things exciting

and made you think twice when deciding on your approach

shot The Bob Cupp designed course blended in well with its

natural surroundings giving the golf course character and defini-

tion The layout and setup also provided the opportunity to use

every club in the bag

Food and service provided during and after the outing

was also outstanding All in all what a great event It takes a lot

of hard work and preparation to put together an event like

this We are extremely fortunate to have members like Mike in

our Association

Thanks again to Mike Baty and the Grizzly Ranch team

for their professionalism

and providing a quality

experience

Jesse Sequin

pure bentgrass

Course yardage is

6422 and 14 is the

signature hole

Mike has

some challenges

with the irrigation

system still being a

quick coupler with

night waterman

even for the greens

Bunkers need re-

building but with

limited budget this

is taking time

Interesting facts include a major ca-

tastrophe at the course in 1997 when the

Feather River levee system failed which sent

a wall of water that completely flooded the

golf course and surrounding areas The wa-

ter went to the roof of the clubhouse and

maintenance shop Then in 2007 the club

was struck again by a major catastrophe

when a fire burned the cart shed containing

the rental carts along with fifty member carts

Mike is supported in his new job by

his wife Carol who he has been married to

for 20 years They have a daughter Serena

18 who is attending junior college outside of

Santa Cruz and a son John 16 who is at-

tending high school Mike enjoys motorcy-

cle racing cross country and desert as well

as boating Mike is a member of the Placer

County Search and Rescue motorcycle team

Mike is looking forward to hosting

the October meeting and sharing his ldquoHidden

Jewelrdquo

Mike KavaneyPlumas Lake C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1

Michael Kaveney

Club House at Plumas Lake Golf amp Coun-

try Club

The SNGCSA is now on Facebook

and Twitter Check it out

Fore Your Information Page 5

Mike Farmen

559-709-6295

Bob Francischine

209-747-2206

Thor Larson

831-277-4356

Guy Auxer

303-601-2361

The Sierra Nevada GCSA

has been a proud supporter of Cali-

fornia turfgrass research for many

years The last two years have seen a

great increase in funding with mem-

ber generated proceeds from the

SampR Tournament and auction Just

last July you may have seen the

presentation of a $10000 check to

Bruce Williams who was represent-

ing the California Turf and Land-

scape Foundation That donation

went directly to Dr Jim Baird and

his staff funding experimental

turfgrass plots throughout California

The UCR Field Day is the

annual showcase of these studies and

attendance at this yearrsquos event sur-

passed previous numbers even

though it was a million degrees in

Riverside Actually it topped out at

103 but it felt so much hotter At-

tendees could find some shade and

cool refreshments under the main

tent while browsing the well attended

trade show Many affiliate members

set up shop and reported their appre-

ciation of the strong turnout I per-

sonally went home with multiple

contacts and plans for future course

improvements

Of course the real show is

the turf trials and there were plenty

to observe There were some NTEP

trials groundcover drought studies

and some work on buffalograss On

the turf disease and stress topic we

got a close look at dollar spot and

anthracnose management salinity

tolerance and nematode damage As

usual there were multiple studies on

irrigation practices including sub

surface irrigation ET regimes and

drip vs overhead After an excellent

lunch some education and a little

more time hiding in the shade we all

headed up to the Kikuyugrass study

before calling it a day

The work at UC Riverside is

only a small snapshot of the efforts

of Dr Baird and his team They also

manage trial locations throughout the

state including the

local courses of

many Sierra Ne-

vada members

Research in Cali-

fornia is moving in

the right direction

with the support of

the all local Chap-

ters the State As-

sociation the PGA

USGA and of

course the affiliate

companies Up-

coming programs like Rounds for

Research make the future even

brighter as California drives to be

one of the leaders in turfgrass re-

search and innovation Continue

your support of these programs and

try to make it down to the next field

day

2012 UCR L AN D SC APE amp TUR F F I E L D DAY Y O U R R E S E A R C H D O L L A R S A T W O R K

B Y J I M A L W I N E

Floratine

AquaVive

Bio-Amp

JRM

Farmload Distributors

Phoenix

AnaLync

Gro-Power

Aqua-Pucks

(800) 322-8417

Your Exclusive Northern California Dealers

Page 6 Fore Your Information

E-mail smithphelenachemicalcom

VM (800) 543-0630

Box2417

Mob (530) 864-6443

Paul K Smith Sales Representative

Pest Control Advisor Western Specialty Division

HELENA CHEMICAL COMPANY

3155 Southgate Lane

Chico Ca 95928

Bus (530) 342-4786

(800) 554-5703

Fax (530) 343-9047

Wilberrsquos Sierra Nevada News by Dave Wilber

Certainly the

passing of Jim

Alwine into the

realm of San

Diego will be

mourned by all

of us who

needed his wit

and wisdom on

a regular basis

However Jim

says that he may

be gone but not forgotten We will

miss Jim and wish him the very best at

Bernardo Heights CC Replacing Jim at Stockton

Golf and C C is a former right hand

of Jims Rob Williams Rob was run-

ning the show at Sunnyside CC in

Fresno prior to his selection

Mat Dunmyer has left Valley

Hi CC in Elk Grove to take a posi-

tion at Monarch Beach GC in Laguna

Nigel (thats So Cal once again)

Theres no truth in the rumor that Mat

just wanted to be neighbors with Al-

wine Mats number 1 Jeremiah

Stumph took the reins of VHCC for a

bit but quickly saw the light and ac-

cepted a position as Mats right hand at

Mats new gig leaving Valley Hi open

at the time of this writing

Changes at Edgewood Tahoe

with Brad Wunderlich taking over

Brad was the Assistant Super at

Montreaux in Reno

David Major is the new super

at Tierra Oaks GC in Redding

Dave comes to us from Shady Canyon

CC in the San Diego area and is a past

president of the San Diego Chapter

Lots of talk about manage-

ment groups and management consult-

ants in our area as lots of distressed

properties are being looked at More

than several supers and affiliates in

our area have received calls from man-

agement consulting types who are

looking for info and may be doing it

behind the current supers back Lets

all remember our ethics in

talking about other peo-

ples situations that we

probably really dont know

anything about

Lastly (and I

wonder why I always get

this job---old age I guess)

lets all remember that our monthly

meetings are places where we gather

network educate and enjoy the fruits

of association membership A monthly

meeting isnt really set up as an excuse

for you to try to become a rockstar and

party like one Leave that for Friday

nights in your hometown We should

never have a situation where we

would ever be embarrassed to bring an

official from our course or club to see

what the SNGCSA is all about after

all they may be approving the expense

of association membership and if it

just looks like an excuse to get silly

expect that line item to be on the cut

list And really isnt it a matter of pro-

fessional courtesy Sure have a good

time but remember who you are and

who we are Its hard enough to get

respect these days without pushing it

Pete Bowman and I are

happy to have the task of being on

point to set up meetings for next year

If youd like the honor to host a meet-

ing we would love to fulfill that

dream for you and can make it worth-

while for the club and the association

with our experience in event planning

In fact if Pete and I ever get tired of

doing what we do Im sure that

a Wedding Planning Service is in our

future

Dave Wilber

R E C R E A T I O N -F A M I LY T I M E B Y K U R T I S W O L F O R D

Fore Your Information Page 7

Lets face it being a golf

course superintendent is a difficult

job sometimes When we are in the

middle of the summer season the

pressure is on when its 100 degrees

out in the day with high night time

60 degree temperatures we work a

lot of crazy hours lose lots of sleep

etc Some of us are always con-

nected to the course via cell phones

With working those crazy hours we

sometimes miss out on or are late

to or cannot attend the things that

are most important to us ldquoFAMILY

Stuffrdquo

With the stresses that our

job produces it is very important

that we take care of the things that

matter the most Our families are the

people that help us decompress and

get our minds off our job for a

while ldquoFamily Timerdquo

I have had the pleasure of

working for a few superrsquos in my ca-

reer that have taught me this and a

few other things along the way On

a weekend day off schedule family

time Turn off the phone Spend the

time together doing whatever activ-

ity you all like to do Plan a day trip

The Sacramento region and the Si-

erra Nevada region have lots of

things to offer Most of us love the

outdoors If I had to be stuck inside I

would go crazy

Here is an idea that offers

something for just about everyone

and you can spend just a few hours

to all day doing it The Sacramento

Region has a jewel that is easy to

access and has lots of activities

Most of you know about the Ameri-

can River Parkway The American

River Parkway is 23 miles in length

with paved paths that are designated

as both a State and National Wild

and Scenic River There are 82 miles

+ of other maintained trails in the

American River Parkway that ex-

tend from Folsom Lake to Sacra-

mento These trails include bike

trails equestrian trails hiking trails

and others The Parkway incorpo-

rates four major parks Discovery

Park that is 302-acres in downtown

Sacramento Ancil Hoffman Park

that is 396-acres in Carmichael

River Bend Park which is 444-acres

in Rancho Cordova and William B

Pond Recreation Area at the end of

Arden Way Lake Natomas offers

boating (5 mph max) kayaking etc

Nimbus dam and Nimbus fish hatch-

ery have great events like tours and

the salmon festival Each of these

parks offers numerous activities

The American River is a world class

fishery for steel

head trout

striped bass

and salmon

The bike paths

offer miles of

riding time

(something I

personally use

twice a week)

All the parks

have play-

grounds for the

kids The Effie

Yeaw Nature

Center is great

for all ages and

is very educa-

tional The en-

tire parkway

offers nature

viewing

These

areas within the

parkway I per-

sonally use and

take my family

to anytime I

can Itrsquos where I go to de-stress de-

compress and to have family time

Go and utilize this area with your

family It offers something for eve-

ryone Have Fun and enjoy your

time away from work

Kurtis Wolford

Page 8 Fore Your Information

FROM T HE F I E L D J E F F J E N S E N G C S A A F I E L D S T A F F S O U T H W E S T R E G I O N

As we ap-

proach Novem-

ber and the

start of the

holiday season

I want to re-

mind Sierra

Nevada mem-

bers that next

yearrsquos GCSAA

Education Con-

ference and Golf Industry Show are

going to be hosted by your

neighbor to the south

The 2013 event will take

place at the San Diego Convention

Center The Education Conference

is scheduled for Feb 4-8 with the

Golf Industry Show taking place

Feb 6-7

This yearrsquos Education Con-

ference will feature over 100 semi-

nars providing you the in-depth

education you need to meet todays

challenges and prepare for tomor-

row 16 new seminars have been

added featuring a variety of topics

including turfgrass management

communications finance leader-

ship and technology Led by the

industrys most renowned research-

ers industry experts and superin-

tendents seminars are available in

full-day six-hour half-day and two

-hour formats Education points

are offered for completing the

seminars and enrollment is limited

so register early

The Golf Industry Show

presented by GCSAA and NGCOA

is an innovative trade show de-

signed for owners and operators of

golf facilities and golf course man-

agement professionals Featuring

the largest exhibit floor in the in-

dustry the event combines educa-

tion networking and solutions for

golf course superintendents equip-

ment managers ownersoperators

general managers chief operating

officers and architects and build-

ers

In addition a number of

networking events will be held dur-

ing the conference and show in-

cluding a Welcome Reception

Opening Session General Session

and the19th Annual GCSAA Colle-

giate Turf Bowl

Early conference and show

registration for GCSAA members

begins Nov 1 and can be com-

pleted online at www2gcsaaorg

conferenceregistration We look

(Continued on page 9)

Jeff Jensen

Fore Your Information Page 9

GCSANC 208

SNGCSA 305

CCGCSA (not enough

scores to qualify)

Long Drive Jim Ferrin

CGCS Sun City Roseville

(won a putter)

Closes to Pin Robert Wil-

liams Stockton Country

Club (won a driver)

TPC Stonebrae

Tournament Results

FROM THE FIELD

C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 8

forward to a big turnout from all of our California affiliated chapters and we

appreciate your support of this event as it returns to the West Coast

In closing I would be remiss if I didnrsquot mention the California GCSA

ldquoCalifornia Roomrdquo that will be held Wednesday Feb 6 during conference

and show The annual cocktail party and social will take place this year

aboard the aircraft carrier USS

Midway in San Diego Harbor

The Midway now serves as a na-

val aviation museum and will of-

fer members and guests the oppor-

tunity to tour the carrier and par-

ticipate in flight simulations and

other activities The event was

attended by nearly 600 partici-

pants last year in Las Vegas and this year promises to be even bigger More

information will be forthcoming and registration will be available online at

wwwcaliforniagcsaorg

As always if I can be of any assistance to you please email me at

jjensengcsaaorg and make sure to follow me on Twitter GCSAA_SW

Page 10 Fore Your Information

Russ Mitchell

Boardtronics

Turf Tire Express

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

Fore Your Information Page 11

2012 DELEGATES MEETING B Y J E F F C O U W E N H O V E N

The 2012 delegates meet-

ing was a adventurous one from

before I left to the time I got back

from it Those details can be

spared but the experience I re-

ceived from attending to represent

the SNGCSA was paramount to

understanding more about what it

is that the GCSAA is doing to

help promote our profession In

the next few pages I will be ad-

dressing many of the highlights

and important messages sent

home for myself to distribute to

the members of our association

Sandy Queen the sitting GCSAA

president gave an overview and a

ldquoState of the Associationrdquo address

highlighted by a few things

First he shared informa-

tion about golfer perception of our

profession and the results from

the survey taken were rather

shocking but yet exciting Golf

course superintendents according

to the McMahon survey report

indicated that 79 of golfers felt

that Golf Course Superintendents

are the key to economic success

of our facilities That was the

highest amongst all professionals

at our facilities 62 of all golf-

ers polled felt that we were the

key to golfer satisfaction which

was also the highest amongst all

professionals at our facilities

96 of our employers felt that

Golf Course Superintendents were

the key to the economic vitality of

our facilities tops of all profes-

sionals at our facilities Our over-

all ranking tied with the club man-

agers in level of importance at our

facilities

Second Mr Queen dis-

cussed some things the GCSAA

board are trying to do to raise

funding through the EIFG our

5013c organization that helps the

GCSAA operate provide re-

search and scholarships to our

members and students He also

bundled that note with the fact

that the national headquarters is in

need of repairs and updating and

that the headquarters is going to

undergo a facelift of some sorts

The projects range from improv-

ing the exterior infrastructure

Interior infrastructure and land-

scaping updates that will help pre-

sent our profession in a better

manner The whole cost is to be

estimated at 19 million dollars

This seems like a lot but

when you think about it we own

our building and nothing has

been done to update the facility in

twenty years I will be presenting

the details of the update at our

annual meeting

Following Mr Queenrsquos

address CEO Rhett Evans gave us

a status of the industry address

that highlighted many items that

regard the golf industry as a

whole They ranged from ten

year comparisons of Rounds

course opening and closings as

well as the status of our mainte-

nance budgets He emphasized

the importance of the GCSAA

surveys some of us participate in

every year If we donrsquot partici-

pate we arenrsquot represented in the

data and we might not get signifi-

cant data to accurately provide a

true snapshot of our end of the

business Those details will be

shared at the annual meeting in

November as well

Mr Evans also touched

upon how we are funded how we

spend our funding and what they

are looking to do in the near fu-

ture to help promote and serve

our professional organization

from a staff and operational level

Again these details are going to

be provided in more depth at our

annual meeting in November

He finished off with putting the

(Continued on page 12)

Verti Drain

Service

Bruce Christensen

Minden NV 89423

2754 Kayne Ave Christensen

Turf Products

Christensen Turf Products

Tel (775) 450-2761

Fax (775-267-9382

Email becgolfearthlinknet

Page 12 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 1

GCSAA mission The key points

in this segment were as follows

Serve the membership

Advance our profession

Enhance the enjoyment growth

and vitality of golf

Increase revenues and operating

efficiencies

Following Mr Evans Mr Sean

Hoolehan the chair of the Member

Standards committee gave a pres-

entation of the results of a study

that has been analyzing three

things

Determine if the original goals

of the Professional Develop

Initiative have or are being

met

Determine if GCSAA member-

ships standards have had any

unintended consequences for

the association and its members

that should be addressed mov-

ing forward

Make recommendations on a

future course of action for the

GCSAA in regards to member-

ship standards

The committee went through eve-

rything from our bylaws affiliate

chapter agreement to the member-

ship growth and classification data

available In a nutshell they found

some things that have been occur-

ring that the GCSAA did not think

were going to happen when PDI

was initiated and they range from

the loss of Class A members to sal-

ary information regarding the clas-

sifications The detail of the report

will be provided at the annual

meeting in November Their rec-

ommendations will be provided as

well at the annual meeting for our

membership

Mr Bill Maynard chair of

the membership committee went

through the upcoming affiliate

chapter agreement that we approve

here at the SNGCSA every three

years to be a affiliated chapter of

the GCSAA It was announced

following some discussion that

there will be a one year extension

of the current agreement to get

some more data from the current

affiliated chapters to better imple-

ment the new agreement in the

coming year The reason for this is

that there will be some verbiage

change and there were quite a few

chapters that felt it necessary to

need more time to correctly change

their bylaws and get a membership

vote to approve the changes for the

next agreement This will be a

topic for discussion in the coming

year I do not think it will affect

our chapter but I will research this

matter further and discuss it with

our board

Mr Randquist presented a

proposal for the GCSAA to raise

our dues $25 dollars This would

cover a CPI increase as well as

some operating expenses with rela-

tion to our life insurance provided

through the GCSAA membership

Further details will be discussed at

the annual meeting

We then got to meet the candidates

for the upcoming election that will

occur at GIS Everyone got five

minutes at the podium to give us all

a first impression

Mr Pat Finlen gave us a

vision for his Presidency high-

lighted the importance of the EIFG

and strategies for its growth and

future to help sustain its future He

touched upon the growth of the

GCSAA into Asia and other re-

gions of the world He briefly

noted that the applications for certi-

fication for the first time since PDI

are up

Our current secretarytreasurer was

not present at the meeting due to

family medical issues He will be

(Continued on page 13)

Page 13 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 2

the incoming Vice president

There are two candidates for the

Secretary Treasurer position This

will create a little drama on the floor

of the election since one of the can-

didates will not be elected Both are

current sitting Board members and

they both expressed interest to con-

tinue sitting on the board if not

elected The one that is not elected

into the officer position will need to

be nominated on the floor of the an-

nual election to be eligible for one of

the three open BOD positions

There are then five candidates for

three positions if that occurs The

candidates that are running for that

position are Peter Grass CGCS and

John J OrsquoKeefe CGCS Both offer

up a strong message and I will high-

light them at the upcoming annual

meeting

For the three BOD positions open

there are four candidates

John Fulling CGCS from Kala-

mazoo Country Club in

Kalamazoo Michigan

John Walker from Blackhorse

Golf Club in Cypress Texas

Mark Jordan CGCS from West-

field Group Country Club in

Westfield Center Ohio

Darren J Davis from Olde Flor-

ida Golf Club in Naples

Florida

Out of the four candidates

Darren Davis is the only incumbent

sitting on the current board All will

be highlighted more in the upcoming

annual meeting

On Sunday we heard more

about the Environmental Institute for

Golf or the EIFG The focus is be-

ing made on how to get more mem-

ber support to help its marketability

with industry partners Currently the

support saturation is around 19

amongst current active members

The target has been set to get 51 of

current members to donate to the

EIFG So they have a long way to

go Some ideas to boost funding are

the sale of a superintendents life sup-

port bag These backpacks will have

essential tools and other little trin-

kets in them to be up for sale on the

EIFG website to help boost revenue

The other ideas are through the now

launched Rounds for Research pro-

gram from which many of our mem-

bersrsquo clubs have donated to If you

do not know where to look you can

reach the R4R website from the

GCSAA website or look for it on the

actual auction sit at

wwwbiddingforgoodcom

We received a update from

the Board policy Overview commit-

tee all the GCSAA field Staff repre-

sentatives another update from CEO

Rhett Evans and most

importantly from

Chava McKeel and

John OrsquoKeefe with

regards to the Public

Policy committee It is

here that Chava let us

all know the priority

issues that the GCSAA

is focusing on They

are as follows

American with Dis-

abilities Act

Fertilizers

Labor and Immigration

Pesticides

Value of Golf

Water Management

There will be some slides devoted to

what they have been fighting for at

the annual meeting and we will be

seeing what this group has been ac-

tively participating in at the National

level as well as at the State level for

our profession

So as you can see there was

a lot of information divulged for a

one and a half day meeting There

will be even more information

passed along in the upcoming

months I hope as your delegate that

you bring to me any hot button is-

sues and other items for discussion

as time moves on and I will be sure

to communicate these properly Feel

free to contact me at

jeffcouwenhovengmailcom or on

my phone at 559-250-0694

Page 14 Fore Your Information

GR I ZZ LY RAN CH H I GH L I G HT S

Pictured above hamming it up are Jeff Cou-

wenhoven with Scott Kotrc Ernesto Ibarra

and Nate Weber at right is Joe Kurung

James Slater Jason DeHerrera and Jason

Collins

The day was perfect and

friends had a time to

share and catch up on

things At right are

SNGCSA President Jeff

Couwenhoven and Host

Superintendent Mike

Baty

Pictured below are Sean Christensen

Bruce Christensen Terry Williams and

Craig Heitman

Page 15 Fore Your Information

2012 PRE S ID E NT rsquoS CUP CH AM PION S

2012 President Cup

Winner

Wes Leith

Tournament Winners

Closest to the Pin 2

Terry Smith (Above right)

Longest Drive Pat Smyth

(Above)

Most Accurate Drive

Steve Byrne (left)

(Above) Terry Williams

with Jeff Couwenhoven

(Below) Christina Bolsko Paul Watts

Page 4: September/October Issue of Fore Your Information

Page 4 Fore Your Information

Grizzly Ranch C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1

organizing the event The rules format

and directions were easy to follow which

helped with the flow of the day and kept

the pace of play tolerable

Now to my favorite part of the ex-

periencehellipthe conditions and golf

course The golf course was setup to pro-

vide challenges and enjoyment for many

different skill sets Conditions were solid

from tee to green The greens were in phe-

nomenal shape and a pleasure to put on

except of course when 3 putting Some

tricky pin placements kept things exciting

and made you think twice when deciding on your approach

shot The Bob Cupp designed course blended in well with its

natural surroundings giving the golf course character and defini-

tion The layout and setup also provided the opportunity to use

every club in the bag

Food and service provided during and after the outing

was also outstanding All in all what a great event It takes a lot

of hard work and preparation to put together an event like

this We are extremely fortunate to have members like Mike in

our Association

Thanks again to Mike Baty and the Grizzly Ranch team

for their professionalism

and providing a quality

experience

Jesse Sequin

pure bentgrass

Course yardage is

6422 and 14 is the

signature hole

Mike has

some challenges

with the irrigation

system still being a

quick coupler with

night waterman

even for the greens

Bunkers need re-

building but with

limited budget this

is taking time

Interesting facts include a major ca-

tastrophe at the course in 1997 when the

Feather River levee system failed which sent

a wall of water that completely flooded the

golf course and surrounding areas The wa-

ter went to the roof of the clubhouse and

maintenance shop Then in 2007 the club

was struck again by a major catastrophe

when a fire burned the cart shed containing

the rental carts along with fifty member carts

Mike is supported in his new job by

his wife Carol who he has been married to

for 20 years They have a daughter Serena

18 who is attending junior college outside of

Santa Cruz and a son John 16 who is at-

tending high school Mike enjoys motorcy-

cle racing cross country and desert as well

as boating Mike is a member of the Placer

County Search and Rescue motorcycle team

Mike is looking forward to hosting

the October meeting and sharing his ldquoHidden

Jewelrdquo

Mike KavaneyPlumas Lake C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1

Michael Kaveney

Club House at Plumas Lake Golf amp Coun-

try Club

The SNGCSA is now on Facebook

and Twitter Check it out

Fore Your Information Page 5

Mike Farmen

559-709-6295

Bob Francischine

209-747-2206

Thor Larson

831-277-4356

Guy Auxer

303-601-2361

The Sierra Nevada GCSA

has been a proud supporter of Cali-

fornia turfgrass research for many

years The last two years have seen a

great increase in funding with mem-

ber generated proceeds from the

SampR Tournament and auction Just

last July you may have seen the

presentation of a $10000 check to

Bruce Williams who was represent-

ing the California Turf and Land-

scape Foundation That donation

went directly to Dr Jim Baird and

his staff funding experimental

turfgrass plots throughout California

The UCR Field Day is the

annual showcase of these studies and

attendance at this yearrsquos event sur-

passed previous numbers even

though it was a million degrees in

Riverside Actually it topped out at

103 but it felt so much hotter At-

tendees could find some shade and

cool refreshments under the main

tent while browsing the well attended

trade show Many affiliate members

set up shop and reported their appre-

ciation of the strong turnout I per-

sonally went home with multiple

contacts and plans for future course

improvements

Of course the real show is

the turf trials and there were plenty

to observe There were some NTEP

trials groundcover drought studies

and some work on buffalograss On

the turf disease and stress topic we

got a close look at dollar spot and

anthracnose management salinity

tolerance and nematode damage As

usual there were multiple studies on

irrigation practices including sub

surface irrigation ET regimes and

drip vs overhead After an excellent

lunch some education and a little

more time hiding in the shade we all

headed up to the Kikuyugrass study

before calling it a day

The work at UC Riverside is

only a small snapshot of the efforts

of Dr Baird and his team They also

manage trial locations throughout the

state including the

local courses of

many Sierra Ne-

vada members

Research in Cali-

fornia is moving in

the right direction

with the support of

the all local Chap-

ters the State As-

sociation the PGA

USGA and of

course the affiliate

companies Up-

coming programs like Rounds for

Research make the future even

brighter as California drives to be

one of the leaders in turfgrass re-

search and innovation Continue

your support of these programs and

try to make it down to the next field

day

2012 UCR L AN D SC APE amp TUR F F I E L D DAY Y O U R R E S E A R C H D O L L A R S A T W O R K

B Y J I M A L W I N E

Floratine

AquaVive

Bio-Amp

JRM

Farmload Distributors

Phoenix

AnaLync

Gro-Power

Aqua-Pucks

(800) 322-8417

Your Exclusive Northern California Dealers

Page 6 Fore Your Information

E-mail smithphelenachemicalcom

VM (800) 543-0630

Box2417

Mob (530) 864-6443

Paul K Smith Sales Representative

Pest Control Advisor Western Specialty Division

HELENA CHEMICAL COMPANY

3155 Southgate Lane

Chico Ca 95928

Bus (530) 342-4786

(800) 554-5703

Fax (530) 343-9047

Wilberrsquos Sierra Nevada News by Dave Wilber

Certainly the

passing of Jim

Alwine into the

realm of San

Diego will be

mourned by all

of us who

needed his wit

and wisdom on

a regular basis

However Jim

says that he may

be gone but not forgotten We will

miss Jim and wish him the very best at

Bernardo Heights CC Replacing Jim at Stockton

Golf and C C is a former right hand

of Jims Rob Williams Rob was run-

ning the show at Sunnyside CC in

Fresno prior to his selection

Mat Dunmyer has left Valley

Hi CC in Elk Grove to take a posi-

tion at Monarch Beach GC in Laguna

Nigel (thats So Cal once again)

Theres no truth in the rumor that Mat

just wanted to be neighbors with Al-

wine Mats number 1 Jeremiah

Stumph took the reins of VHCC for a

bit but quickly saw the light and ac-

cepted a position as Mats right hand at

Mats new gig leaving Valley Hi open

at the time of this writing

Changes at Edgewood Tahoe

with Brad Wunderlich taking over

Brad was the Assistant Super at

Montreaux in Reno

David Major is the new super

at Tierra Oaks GC in Redding

Dave comes to us from Shady Canyon

CC in the San Diego area and is a past

president of the San Diego Chapter

Lots of talk about manage-

ment groups and management consult-

ants in our area as lots of distressed

properties are being looked at More

than several supers and affiliates in

our area have received calls from man-

agement consulting types who are

looking for info and may be doing it

behind the current supers back Lets

all remember our ethics in

talking about other peo-

ples situations that we

probably really dont know

anything about

Lastly (and I

wonder why I always get

this job---old age I guess)

lets all remember that our monthly

meetings are places where we gather

network educate and enjoy the fruits

of association membership A monthly

meeting isnt really set up as an excuse

for you to try to become a rockstar and

party like one Leave that for Friday

nights in your hometown We should

never have a situation where we

would ever be embarrassed to bring an

official from our course or club to see

what the SNGCSA is all about after

all they may be approving the expense

of association membership and if it

just looks like an excuse to get silly

expect that line item to be on the cut

list And really isnt it a matter of pro-

fessional courtesy Sure have a good

time but remember who you are and

who we are Its hard enough to get

respect these days without pushing it

Pete Bowman and I are

happy to have the task of being on

point to set up meetings for next year

If youd like the honor to host a meet-

ing we would love to fulfill that

dream for you and can make it worth-

while for the club and the association

with our experience in event planning

In fact if Pete and I ever get tired of

doing what we do Im sure that

a Wedding Planning Service is in our

future

Dave Wilber

R E C R E A T I O N -F A M I LY T I M E B Y K U R T I S W O L F O R D

Fore Your Information Page 7

Lets face it being a golf

course superintendent is a difficult

job sometimes When we are in the

middle of the summer season the

pressure is on when its 100 degrees

out in the day with high night time

60 degree temperatures we work a

lot of crazy hours lose lots of sleep

etc Some of us are always con-

nected to the course via cell phones

With working those crazy hours we

sometimes miss out on or are late

to or cannot attend the things that

are most important to us ldquoFAMILY

Stuffrdquo

With the stresses that our

job produces it is very important

that we take care of the things that

matter the most Our families are the

people that help us decompress and

get our minds off our job for a

while ldquoFamily Timerdquo

I have had the pleasure of

working for a few superrsquos in my ca-

reer that have taught me this and a

few other things along the way On

a weekend day off schedule family

time Turn off the phone Spend the

time together doing whatever activ-

ity you all like to do Plan a day trip

The Sacramento region and the Si-

erra Nevada region have lots of

things to offer Most of us love the

outdoors If I had to be stuck inside I

would go crazy

Here is an idea that offers

something for just about everyone

and you can spend just a few hours

to all day doing it The Sacramento

Region has a jewel that is easy to

access and has lots of activities

Most of you know about the Ameri-

can River Parkway The American

River Parkway is 23 miles in length

with paved paths that are designated

as both a State and National Wild

and Scenic River There are 82 miles

+ of other maintained trails in the

American River Parkway that ex-

tend from Folsom Lake to Sacra-

mento These trails include bike

trails equestrian trails hiking trails

and others The Parkway incorpo-

rates four major parks Discovery

Park that is 302-acres in downtown

Sacramento Ancil Hoffman Park

that is 396-acres in Carmichael

River Bend Park which is 444-acres

in Rancho Cordova and William B

Pond Recreation Area at the end of

Arden Way Lake Natomas offers

boating (5 mph max) kayaking etc

Nimbus dam and Nimbus fish hatch-

ery have great events like tours and

the salmon festival Each of these

parks offers numerous activities

The American River is a world class

fishery for steel

head trout

striped bass

and salmon

The bike paths

offer miles of

riding time

(something I

personally use

twice a week)

All the parks

have play-

grounds for the

kids The Effie

Yeaw Nature

Center is great

for all ages and

is very educa-

tional The en-

tire parkway

offers nature

viewing

These

areas within the

parkway I per-

sonally use and

take my family

to anytime I

can Itrsquos where I go to de-stress de-

compress and to have family time

Go and utilize this area with your

family It offers something for eve-

ryone Have Fun and enjoy your

time away from work

Kurtis Wolford

Page 8 Fore Your Information

FROM T HE F I E L D J E F F J E N S E N G C S A A F I E L D S T A F F S O U T H W E S T R E G I O N

As we ap-

proach Novem-

ber and the

start of the

holiday season

I want to re-

mind Sierra

Nevada mem-

bers that next

yearrsquos GCSAA

Education Con-

ference and Golf Industry Show are

going to be hosted by your

neighbor to the south

The 2013 event will take

place at the San Diego Convention

Center The Education Conference

is scheduled for Feb 4-8 with the

Golf Industry Show taking place

Feb 6-7

This yearrsquos Education Con-

ference will feature over 100 semi-

nars providing you the in-depth

education you need to meet todays

challenges and prepare for tomor-

row 16 new seminars have been

added featuring a variety of topics

including turfgrass management

communications finance leader-

ship and technology Led by the

industrys most renowned research-

ers industry experts and superin-

tendents seminars are available in

full-day six-hour half-day and two

-hour formats Education points

are offered for completing the

seminars and enrollment is limited

so register early

The Golf Industry Show

presented by GCSAA and NGCOA

is an innovative trade show de-

signed for owners and operators of

golf facilities and golf course man-

agement professionals Featuring

the largest exhibit floor in the in-

dustry the event combines educa-

tion networking and solutions for

golf course superintendents equip-

ment managers ownersoperators

general managers chief operating

officers and architects and build-

ers

In addition a number of

networking events will be held dur-

ing the conference and show in-

cluding a Welcome Reception

Opening Session General Session

and the19th Annual GCSAA Colle-

giate Turf Bowl

Early conference and show

registration for GCSAA members

begins Nov 1 and can be com-

pleted online at www2gcsaaorg

conferenceregistration We look

(Continued on page 9)

Jeff Jensen

Fore Your Information Page 9

GCSANC 208

SNGCSA 305

CCGCSA (not enough

scores to qualify)

Long Drive Jim Ferrin

CGCS Sun City Roseville

(won a putter)

Closes to Pin Robert Wil-

liams Stockton Country

Club (won a driver)

TPC Stonebrae

Tournament Results

FROM THE FIELD

C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 8

forward to a big turnout from all of our California affiliated chapters and we

appreciate your support of this event as it returns to the West Coast

In closing I would be remiss if I didnrsquot mention the California GCSA

ldquoCalifornia Roomrdquo that will be held Wednesday Feb 6 during conference

and show The annual cocktail party and social will take place this year

aboard the aircraft carrier USS

Midway in San Diego Harbor

The Midway now serves as a na-

val aviation museum and will of-

fer members and guests the oppor-

tunity to tour the carrier and par-

ticipate in flight simulations and

other activities The event was

attended by nearly 600 partici-

pants last year in Las Vegas and this year promises to be even bigger More

information will be forthcoming and registration will be available online at

wwwcaliforniagcsaorg

As always if I can be of any assistance to you please email me at

jjensengcsaaorg and make sure to follow me on Twitter GCSAA_SW

Page 10 Fore Your Information

Russ Mitchell

Boardtronics

Turf Tire Express

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

Fore Your Information Page 11

2012 DELEGATES MEETING B Y J E F F C O U W E N H O V E N

The 2012 delegates meet-

ing was a adventurous one from

before I left to the time I got back

from it Those details can be

spared but the experience I re-

ceived from attending to represent

the SNGCSA was paramount to

understanding more about what it

is that the GCSAA is doing to

help promote our profession In

the next few pages I will be ad-

dressing many of the highlights

and important messages sent

home for myself to distribute to

the members of our association

Sandy Queen the sitting GCSAA

president gave an overview and a

ldquoState of the Associationrdquo address

highlighted by a few things

First he shared informa-

tion about golfer perception of our

profession and the results from

the survey taken were rather

shocking but yet exciting Golf

course superintendents according

to the McMahon survey report

indicated that 79 of golfers felt

that Golf Course Superintendents

are the key to economic success

of our facilities That was the

highest amongst all professionals

at our facilities 62 of all golf-

ers polled felt that we were the

key to golfer satisfaction which

was also the highest amongst all

professionals at our facilities

96 of our employers felt that

Golf Course Superintendents were

the key to the economic vitality of

our facilities tops of all profes-

sionals at our facilities Our over-

all ranking tied with the club man-

agers in level of importance at our

facilities

Second Mr Queen dis-

cussed some things the GCSAA

board are trying to do to raise

funding through the EIFG our

5013c organization that helps the

GCSAA operate provide re-

search and scholarships to our

members and students He also

bundled that note with the fact

that the national headquarters is in

need of repairs and updating and

that the headquarters is going to

undergo a facelift of some sorts

The projects range from improv-

ing the exterior infrastructure

Interior infrastructure and land-

scaping updates that will help pre-

sent our profession in a better

manner The whole cost is to be

estimated at 19 million dollars

This seems like a lot but

when you think about it we own

our building and nothing has

been done to update the facility in

twenty years I will be presenting

the details of the update at our

annual meeting

Following Mr Queenrsquos

address CEO Rhett Evans gave us

a status of the industry address

that highlighted many items that

regard the golf industry as a

whole They ranged from ten

year comparisons of Rounds

course opening and closings as

well as the status of our mainte-

nance budgets He emphasized

the importance of the GCSAA

surveys some of us participate in

every year If we donrsquot partici-

pate we arenrsquot represented in the

data and we might not get signifi-

cant data to accurately provide a

true snapshot of our end of the

business Those details will be

shared at the annual meeting in

November as well

Mr Evans also touched

upon how we are funded how we

spend our funding and what they

are looking to do in the near fu-

ture to help promote and serve

our professional organization

from a staff and operational level

Again these details are going to

be provided in more depth at our

annual meeting in November

He finished off with putting the

(Continued on page 12)

Verti Drain

Service

Bruce Christensen

Minden NV 89423

2754 Kayne Ave Christensen

Turf Products

Christensen Turf Products

Tel (775) 450-2761

Fax (775-267-9382

Email becgolfearthlinknet

Page 12 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 1

GCSAA mission The key points

in this segment were as follows

Serve the membership

Advance our profession

Enhance the enjoyment growth

and vitality of golf

Increase revenues and operating

efficiencies

Following Mr Evans Mr Sean

Hoolehan the chair of the Member

Standards committee gave a pres-

entation of the results of a study

that has been analyzing three

things

Determine if the original goals

of the Professional Develop

Initiative have or are being

met

Determine if GCSAA member-

ships standards have had any

unintended consequences for

the association and its members

that should be addressed mov-

ing forward

Make recommendations on a

future course of action for the

GCSAA in regards to member-

ship standards

The committee went through eve-

rything from our bylaws affiliate

chapter agreement to the member-

ship growth and classification data

available In a nutshell they found

some things that have been occur-

ring that the GCSAA did not think

were going to happen when PDI

was initiated and they range from

the loss of Class A members to sal-

ary information regarding the clas-

sifications The detail of the report

will be provided at the annual

meeting in November Their rec-

ommendations will be provided as

well at the annual meeting for our

membership

Mr Bill Maynard chair of

the membership committee went

through the upcoming affiliate

chapter agreement that we approve

here at the SNGCSA every three

years to be a affiliated chapter of

the GCSAA It was announced

following some discussion that

there will be a one year extension

of the current agreement to get

some more data from the current

affiliated chapters to better imple-

ment the new agreement in the

coming year The reason for this is

that there will be some verbiage

change and there were quite a few

chapters that felt it necessary to

need more time to correctly change

their bylaws and get a membership

vote to approve the changes for the

next agreement This will be a

topic for discussion in the coming

year I do not think it will affect

our chapter but I will research this

matter further and discuss it with

our board

Mr Randquist presented a

proposal for the GCSAA to raise

our dues $25 dollars This would

cover a CPI increase as well as

some operating expenses with rela-

tion to our life insurance provided

through the GCSAA membership

Further details will be discussed at

the annual meeting

We then got to meet the candidates

for the upcoming election that will

occur at GIS Everyone got five

minutes at the podium to give us all

a first impression

Mr Pat Finlen gave us a

vision for his Presidency high-

lighted the importance of the EIFG

and strategies for its growth and

future to help sustain its future He

touched upon the growth of the

GCSAA into Asia and other re-

gions of the world He briefly

noted that the applications for certi-

fication for the first time since PDI

are up

Our current secretarytreasurer was

not present at the meeting due to

family medical issues He will be

(Continued on page 13)

Page 13 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 2

the incoming Vice president

There are two candidates for the

Secretary Treasurer position This

will create a little drama on the floor

of the election since one of the can-

didates will not be elected Both are

current sitting Board members and

they both expressed interest to con-

tinue sitting on the board if not

elected The one that is not elected

into the officer position will need to

be nominated on the floor of the an-

nual election to be eligible for one of

the three open BOD positions

There are then five candidates for

three positions if that occurs The

candidates that are running for that

position are Peter Grass CGCS and

John J OrsquoKeefe CGCS Both offer

up a strong message and I will high-

light them at the upcoming annual

meeting

For the three BOD positions open

there are four candidates

John Fulling CGCS from Kala-

mazoo Country Club in

Kalamazoo Michigan

John Walker from Blackhorse

Golf Club in Cypress Texas

Mark Jordan CGCS from West-

field Group Country Club in

Westfield Center Ohio

Darren J Davis from Olde Flor-

ida Golf Club in Naples

Florida

Out of the four candidates

Darren Davis is the only incumbent

sitting on the current board All will

be highlighted more in the upcoming

annual meeting

On Sunday we heard more

about the Environmental Institute for

Golf or the EIFG The focus is be-

ing made on how to get more mem-

ber support to help its marketability

with industry partners Currently the

support saturation is around 19

amongst current active members

The target has been set to get 51 of

current members to donate to the

EIFG So they have a long way to

go Some ideas to boost funding are

the sale of a superintendents life sup-

port bag These backpacks will have

essential tools and other little trin-

kets in them to be up for sale on the

EIFG website to help boost revenue

The other ideas are through the now

launched Rounds for Research pro-

gram from which many of our mem-

bersrsquo clubs have donated to If you

do not know where to look you can

reach the R4R website from the

GCSAA website or look for it on the

actual auction sit at

wwwbiddingforgoodcom

We received a update from

the Board policy Overview commit-

tee all the GCSAA field Staff repre-

sentatives another update from CEO

Rhett Evans and most

importantly from

Chava McKeel and

John OrsquoKeefe with

regards to the Public

Policy committee It is

here that Chava let us

all know the priority

issues that the GCSAA

is focusing on They

are as follows

American with Dis-

abilities Act

Fertilizers

Labor and Immigration

Pesticides

Value of Golf

Water Management

There will be some slides devoted to

what they have been fighting for at

the annual meeting and we will be

seeing what this group has been ac-

tively participating in at the National

level as well as at the State level for

our profession

So as you can see there was

a lot of information divulged for a

one and a half day meeting There

will be even more information

passed along in the upcoming

months I hope as your delegate that

you bring to me any hot button is-

sues and other items for discussion

as time moves on and I will be sure

to communicate these properly Feel

free to contact me at

jeffcouwenhovengmailcom or on

my phone at 559-250-0694

Page 14 Fore Your Information

GR I ZZ LY RAN CH H I GH L I G HT S

Pictured above hamming it up are Jeff Cou-

wenhoven with Scott Kotrc Ernesto Ibarra

and Nate Weber at right is Joe Kurung

James Slater Jason DeHerrera and Jason

Collins

The day was perfect and

friends had a time to

share and catch up on

things At right are

SNGCSA President Jeff

Couwenhoven and Host

Superintendent Mike

Baty

Pictured below are Sean Christensen

Bruce Christensen Terry Williams and

Craig Heitman

Page 15 Fore Your Information

2012 PRE S ID E NT rsquoS CUP CH AM PION S

2012 President Cup

Winner

Wes Leith

Tournament Winners

Closest to the Pin 2

Terry Smith (Above right)

Longest Drive Pat Smyth

(Above)

Most Accurate Drive

Steve Byrne (left)

(Above) Terry Williams

with Jeff Couwenhoven

(Below) Christina Bolsko Paul Watts

Page 5: September/October Issue of Fore Your Information

Fore Your Information Page 5

Mike Farmen

559-709-6295

Bob Francischine

209-747-2206

Thor Larson

831-277-4356

Guy Auxer

303-601-2361

The Sierra Nevada GCSA

has been a proud supporter of Cali-

fornia turfgrass research for many

years The last two years have seen a

great increase in funding with mem-

ber generated proceeds from the

SampR Tournament and auction Just

last July you may have seen the

presentation of a $10000 check to

Bruce Williams who was represent-

ing the California Turf and Land-

scape Foundation That donation

went directly to Dr Jim Baird and

his staff funding experimental

turfgrass plots throughout California

The UCR Field Day is the

annual showcase of these studies and

attendance at this yearrsquos event sur-

passed previous numbers even

though it was a million degrees in

Riverside Actually it topped out at

103 but it felt so much hotter At-

tendees could find some shade and

cool refreshments under the main

tent while browsing the well attended

trade show Many affiliate members

set up shop and reported their appre-

ciation of the strong turnout I per-

sonally went home with multiple

contacts and plans for future course

improvements

Of course the real show is

the turf trials and there were plenty

to observe There were some NTEP

trials groundcover drought studies

and some work on buffalograss On

the turf disease and stress topic we

got a close look at dollar spot and

anthracnose management salinity

tolerance and nematode damage As

usual there were multiple studies on

irrigation practices including sub

surface irrigation ET regimes and

drip vs overhead After an excellent

lunch some education and a little

more time hiding in the shade we all

headed up to the Kikuyugrass study

before calling it a day

The work at UC Riverside is

only a small snapshot of the efforts

of Dr Baird and his team They also

manage trial locations throughout the

state including the

local courses of

many Sierra Ne-

vada members

Research in Cali-

fornia is moving in

the right direction

with the support of

the all local Chap-

ters the State As-

sociation the PGA

USGA and of

course the affiliate

companies Up-

coming programs like Rounds for

Research make the future even

brighter as California drives to be

one of the leaders in turfgrass re-

search and innovation Continue

your support of these programs and

try to make it down to the next field

day

2012 UCR L AN D SC APE amp TUR F F I E L D DAY Y O U R R E S E A R C H D O L L A R S A T W O R K

B Y J I M A L W I N E

Floratine

AquaVive

Bio-Amp

JRM

Farmload Distributors

Phoenix

AnaLync

Gro-Power

Aqua-Pucks

(800) 322-8417

Your Exclusive Northern California Dealers

Page 6 Fore Your Information

E-mail smithphelenachemicalcom

VM (800) 543-0630

Box2417

Mob (530) 864-6443

Paul K Smith Sales Representative

Pest Control Advisor Western Specialty Division

HELENA CHEMICAL COMPANY

3155 Southgate Lane

Chico Ca 95928

Bus (530) 342-4786

(800) 554-5703

Fax (530) 343-9047

Wilberrsquos Sierra Nevada News by Dave Wilber

Certainly the

passing of Jim

Alwine into the

realm of San

Diego will be

mourned by all

of us who

needed his wit

and wisdom on

a regular basis

However Jim

says that he may

be gone but not forgotten We will

miss Jim and wish him the very best at

Bernardo Heights CC Replacing Jim at Stockton

Golf and C C is a former right hand

of Jims Rob Williams Rob was run-

ning the show at Sunnyside CC in

Fresno prior to his selection

Mat Dunmyer has left Valley

Hi CC in Elk Grove to take a posi-

tion at Monarch Beach GC in Laguna

Nigel (thats So Cal once again)

Theres no truth in the rumor that Mat

just wanted to be neighbors with Al-

wine Mats number 1 Jeremiah

Stumph took the reins of VHCC for a

bit but quickly saw the light and ac-

cepted a position as Mats right hand at

Mats new gig leaving Valley Hi open

at the time of this writing

Changes at Edgewood Tahoe

with Brad Wunderlich taking over

Brad was the Assistant Super at

Montreaux in Reno

David Major is the new super

at Tierra Oaks GC in Redding

Dave comes to us from Shady Canyon

CC in the San Diego area and is a past

president of the San Diego Chapter

Lots of talk about manage-

ment groups and management consult-

ants in our area as lots of distressed

properties are being looked at More

than several supers and affiliates in

our area have received calls from man-

agement consulting types who are

looking for info and may be doing it

behind the current supers back Lets

all remember our ethics in

talking about other peo-

ples situations that we

probably really dont know

anything about

Lastly (and I

wonder why I always get

this job---old age I guess)

lets all remember that our monthly

meetings are places where we gather

network educate and enjoy the fruits

of association membership A monthly

meeting isnt really set up as an excuse

for you to try to become a rockstar and

party like one Leave that for Friday

nights in your hometown We should

never have a situation where we

would ever be embarrassed to bring an

official from our course or club to see

what the SNGCSA is all about after

all they may be approving the expense

of association membership and if it

just looks like an excuse to get silly

expect that line item to be on the cut

list And really isnt it a matter of pro-

fessional courtesy Sure have a good

time but remember who you are and

who we are Its hard enough to get

respect these days without pushing it

Pete Bowman and I are

happy to have the task of being on

point to set up meetings for next year

If youd like the honor to host a meet-

ing we would love to fulfill that

dream for you and can make it worth-

while for the club and the association

with our experience in event planning

In fact if Pete and I ever get tired of

doing what we do Im sure that

a Wedding Planning Service is in our

future

Dave Wilber

R E C R E A T I O N -F A M I LY T I M E B Y K U R T I S W O L F O R D

Fore Your Information Page 7

Lets face it being a golf

course superintendent is a difficult

job sometimes When we are in the

middle of the summer season the

pressure is on when its 100 degrees

out in the day with high night time

60 degree temperatures we work a

lot of crazy hours lose lots of sleep

etc Some of us are always con-

nected to the course via cell phones

With working those crazy hours we

sometimes miss out on or are late

to or cannot attend the things that

are most important to us ldquoFAMILY

Stuffrdquo

With the stresses that our

job produces it is very important

that we take care of the things that

matter the most Our families are the

people that help us decompress and

get our minds off our job for a

while ldquoFamily Timerdquo

I have had the pleasure of

working for a few superrsquos in my ca-

reer that have taught me this and a

few other things along the way On

a weekend day off schedule family

time Turn off the phone Spend the

time together doing whatever activ-

ity you all like to do Plan a day trip

The Sacramento region and the Si-

erra Nevada region have lots of

things to offer Most of us love the

outdoors If I had to be stuck inside I

would go crazy

Here is an idea that offers

something for just about everyone

and you can spend just a few hours

to all day doing it The Sacramento

Region has a jewel that is easy to

access and has lots of activities

Most of you know about the Ameri-

can River Parkway The American

River Parkway is 23 miles in length

with paved paths that are designated

as both a State and National Wild

and Scenic River There are 82 miles

+ of other maintained trails in the

American River Parkway that ex-

tend from Folsom Lake to Sacra-

mento These trails include bike

trails equestrian trails hiking trails

and others The Parkway incorpo-

rates four major parks Discovery

Park that is 302-acres in downtown

Sacramento Ancil Hoffman Park

that is 396-acres in Carmichael

River Bend Park which is 444-acres

in Rancho Cordova and William B

Pond Recreation Area at the end of

Arden Way Lake Natomas offers

boating (5 mph max) kayaking etc

Nimbus dam and Nimbus fish hatch-

ery have great events like tours and

the salmon festival Each of these

parks offers numerous activities

The American River is a world class

fishery for steel

head trout

striped bass

and salmon

The bike paths

offer miles of

riding time

(something I

personally use

twice a week)

All the parks

have play-

grounds for the

kids The Effie

Yeaw Nature

Center is great

for all ages and

is very educa-

tional The en-

tire parkway

offers nature

viewing

These

areas within the

parkway I per-

sonally use and

take my family

to anytime I

can Itrsquos where I go to de-stress de-

compress and to have family time

Go and utilize this area with your

family It offers something for eve-

ryone Have Fun and enjoy your

time away from work

Kurtis Wolford

Page 8 Fore Your Information

FROM T HE F I E L D J E F F J E N S E N G C S A A F I E L D S T A F F S O U T H W E S T R E G I O N

As we ap-

proach Novem-

ber and the

start of the

holiday season

I want to re-

mind Sierra

Nevada mem-

bers that next

yearrsquos GCSAA

Education Con-

ference and Golf Industry Show are

going to be hosted by your

neighbor to the south

The 2013 event will take

place at the San Diego Convention

Center The Education Conference

is scheduled for Feb 4-8 with the

Golf Industry Show taking place

Feb 6-7

This yearrsquos Education Con-

ference will feature over 100 semi-

nars providing you the in-depth

education you need to meet todays

challenges and prepare for tomor-

row 16 new seminars have been

added featuring a variety of topics

including turfgrass management

communications finance leader-

ship and technology Led by the

industrys most renowned research-

ers industry experts and superin-

tendents seminars are available in

full-day six-hour half-day and two

-hour formats Education points

are offered for completing the

seminars and enrollment is limited

so register early

The Golf Industry Show

presented by GCSAA and NGCOA

is an innovative trade show de-

signed for owners and operators of

golf facilities and golf course man-

agement professionals Featuring

the largest exhibit floor in the in-

dustry the event combines educa-

tion networking and solutions for

golf course superintendents equip-

ment managers ownersoperators

general managers chief operating

officers and architects and build-

ers

In addition a number of

networking events will be held dur-

ing the conference and show in-

cluding a Welcome Reception

Opening Session General Session

and the19th Annual GCSAA Colle-

giate Turf Bowl

Early conference and show

registration for GCSAA members

begins Nov 1 and can be com-

pleted online at www2gcsaaorg

conferenceregistration We look

(Continued on page 9)

Jeff Jensen

Fore Your Information Page 9

GCSANC 208

SNGCSA 305

CCGCSA (not enough

scores to qualify)

Long Drive Jim Ferrin

CGCS Sun City Roseville

(won a putter)

Closes to Pin Robert Wil-

liams Stockton Country

Club (won a driver)

TPC Stonebrae

Tournament Results

FROM THE FIELD

C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 8

forward to a big turnout from all of our California affiliated chapters and we

appreciate your support of this event as it returns to the West Coast

In closing I would be remiss if I didnrsquot mention the California GCSA

ldquoCalifornia Roomrdquo that will be held Wednesday Feb 6 during conference

and show The annual cocktail party and social will take place this year

aboard the aircraft carrier USS

Midway in San Diego Harbor

The Midway now serves as a na-

val aviation museum and will of-

fer members and guests the oppor-

tunity to tour the carrier and par-

ticipate in flight simulations and

other activities The event was

attended by nearly 600 partici-

pants last year in Las Vegas and this year promises to be even bigger More

information will be forthcoming and registration will be available online at

wwwcaliforniagcsaorg

As always if I can be of any assistance to you please email me at

jjensengcsaaorg and make sure to follow me on Twitter GCSAA_SW

Page 10 Fore Your Information

Russ Mitchell

Boardtronics

Turf Tire Express

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

Fore Your Information Page 11

2012 DELEGATES MEETING B Y J E F F C O U W E N H O V E N

The 2012 delegates meet-

ing was a adventurous one from

before I left to the time I got back

from it Those details can be

spared but the experience I re-

ceived from attending to represent

the SNGCSA was paramount to

understanding more about what it

is that the GCSAA is doing to

help promote our profession In

the next few pages I will be ad-

dressing many of the highlights

and important messages sent

home for myself to distribute to

the members of our association

Sandy Queen the sitting GCSAA

president gave an overview and a

ldquoState of the Associationrdquo address

highlighted by a few things

First he shared informa-

tion about golfer perception of our

profession and the results from

the survey taken were rather

shocking but yet exciting Golf

course superintendents according

to the McMahon survey report

indicated that 79 of golfers felt

that Golf Course Superintendents

are the key to economic success

of our facilities That was the

highest amongst all professionals

at our facilities 62 of all golf-

ers polled felt that we were the

key to golfer satisfaction which

was also the highest amongst all

professionals at our facilities

96 of our employers felt that

Golf Course Superintendents were

the key to the economic vitality of

our facilities tops of all profes-

sionals at our facilities Our over-

all ranking tied with the club man-

agers in level of importance at our

facilities

Second Mr Queen dis-

cussed some things the GCSAA

board are trying to do to raise

funding through the EIFG our

5013c organization that helps the

GCSAA operate provide re-

search and scholarships to our

members and students He also

bundled that note with the fact

that the national headquarters is in

need of repairs and updating and

that the headquarters is going to

undergo a facelift of some sorts

The projects range from improv-

ing the exterior infrastructure

Interior infrastructure and land-

scaping updates that will help pre-

sent our profession in a better

manner The whole cost is to be

estimated at 19 million dollars

This seems like a lot but

when you think about it we own

our building and nothing has

been done to update the facility in

twenty years I will be presenting

the details of the update at our

annual meeting

Following Mr Queenrsquos

address CEO Rhett Evans gave us

a status of the industry address

that highlighted many items that

regard the golf industry as a

whole They ranged from ten

year comparisons of Rounds

course opening and closings as

well as the status of our mainte-

nance budgets He emphasized

the importance of the GCSAA

surveys some of us participate in

every year If we donrsquot partici-

pate we arenrsquot represented in the

data and we might not get signifi-

cant data to accurately provide a

true snapshot of our end of the

business Those details will be

shared at the annual meeting in

November as well

Mr Evans also touched

upon how we are funded how we

spend our funding and what they

are looking to do in the near fu-

ture to help promote and serve

our professional organization

from a staff and operational level

Again these details are going to

be provided in more depth at our

annual meeting in November

He finished off with putting the

(Continued on page 12)

Verti Drain

Service

Bruce Christensen

Minden NV 89423

2754 Kayne Ave Christensen

Turf Products

Christensen Turf Products

Tel (775) 450-2761

Fax (775-267-9382

Email becgolfearthlinknet

Page 12 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 1

GCSAA mission The key points

in this segment were as follows

Serve the membership

Advance our profession

Enhance the enjoyment growth

and vitality of golf

Increase revenues and operating

efficiencies

Following Mr Evans Mr Sean

Hoolehan the chair of the Member

Standards committee gave a pres-

entation of the results of a study

that has been analyzing three

things

Determine if the original goals

of the Professional Develop

Initiative have or are being

met

Determine if GCSAA member-

ships standards have had any

unintended consequences for

the association and its members

that should be addressed mov-

ing forward

Make recommendations on a

future course of action for the

GCSAA in regards to member-

ship standards

The committee went through eve-

rything from our bylaws affiliate

chapter agreement to the member-

ship growth and classification data

available In a nutshell they found

some things that have been occur-

ring that the GCSAA did not think

were going to happen when PDI

was initiated and they range from

the loss of Class A members to sal-

ary information regarding the clas-

sifications The detail of the report

will be provided at the annual

meeting in November Their rec-

ommendations will be provided as

well at the annual meeting for our

membership

Mr Bill Maynard chair of

the membership committee went

through the upcoming affiliate

chapter agreement that we approve

here at the SNGCSA every three

years to be a affiliated chapter of

the GCSAA It was announced

following some discussion that

there will be a one year extension

of the current agreement to get

some more data from the current

affiliated chapters to better imple-

ment the new agreement in the

coming year The reason for this is

that there will be some verbiage

change and there were quite a few

chapters that felt it necessary to

need more time to correctly change

their bylaws and get a membership

vote to approve the changes for the

next agreement This will be a

topic for discussion in the coming

year I do not think it will affect

our chapter but I will research this

matter further and discuss it with

our board

Mr Randquist presented a

proposal for the GCSAA to raise

our dues $25 dollars This would

cover a CPI increase as well as

some operating expenses with rela-

tion to our life insurance provided

through the GCSAA membership

Further details will be discussed at

the annual meeting

We then got to meet the candidates

for the upcoming election that will

occur at GIS Everyone got five

minutes at the podium to give us all

a first impression

Mr Pat Finlen gave us a

vision for his Presidency high-

lighted the importance of the EIFG

and strategies for its growth and

future to help sustain its future He

touched upon the growth of the

GCSAA into Asia and other re-

gions of the world He briefly

noted that the applications for certi-

fication for the first time since PDI

are up

Our current secretarytreasurer was

not present at the meeting due to

family medical issues He will be

(Continued on page 13)

Page 13 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 2

the incoming Vice president

There are two candidates for the

Secretary Treasurer position This

will create a little drama on the floor

of the election since one of the can-

didates will not be elected Both are

current sitting Board members and

they both expressed interest to con-

tinue sitting on the board if not

elected The one that is not elected

into the officer position will need to

be nominated on the floor of the an-

nual election to be eligible for one of

the three open BOD positions

There are then five candidates for

three positions if that occurs The

candidates that are running for that

position are Peter Grass CGCS and

John J OrsquoKeefe CGCS Both offer

up a strong message and I will high-

light them at the upcoming annual

meeting

For the three BOD positions open

there are four candidates

John Fulling CGCS from Kala-

mazoo Country Club in

Kalamazoo Michigan

John Walker from Blackhorse

Golf Club in Cypress Texas

Mark Jordan CGCS from West-

field Group Country Club in

Westfield Center Ohio

Darren J Davis from Olde Flor-

ida Golf Club in Naples

Florida

Out of the four candidates

Darren Davis is the only incumbent

sitting on the current board All will

be highlighted more in the upcoming

annual meeting

On Sunday we heard more

about the Environmental Institute for

Golf or the EIFG The focus is be-

ing made on how to get more mem-

ber support to help its marketability

with industry partners Currently the

support saturation is around 19

amongst current active members

The target has been set to get 51 of

current members to donate to the

EIFG So they have a long way to

go Some ideas to boost funding are

the sale of a superintendents life sup-

port bag These backpacks will have

essential tools and other little trin-

kets in them to be up for sale on the

EIFG website to help boost revenue

The other ideas are through the now

launched Rounds for Research pro-

gram from which many of our mem-

bersrsquo clubs have donated to If you

do not know where to look you can

reach the R4R website from the

GCSAA website or look for it on the

actual auction sit at

wwwbiddingforgoodcom

We received a update from

the Board policy Overview commit-

tee all the GCSAA field Staff repre-

sentatives another update from CEO

Rhett Evans and most

importantly from

Chava McKeel and

John OrsquoKeefe with

regards to the Public

Policy committee It is

here that Chava let us

all know the priority

issues that the GCSAA

is focusing on They

are as follows

American with Dis-

abilities Act

Fertilizers

Labor and Immigration

Pesticides

Value of Golf

Water Management

There will be some slides devoted to

what they have been fighting for at

the annual meeting and we will be

seeing what this group has been ac-

tively participating in at the National

level as well as at the State level for

our profession

So as you can see there was

a lot of information divulged for a

one and a half day meeting There

will be even more information

passed along in the upcoming

months I hope as your delegate that

you bring to me any hot button is-

sues and other items for discussion

as time moves on and I will be sure

to communicate these properly Feel

free to contact me at

jeffcouwenhovengmailcom or on

my phone at 559-250-0694

Page 14 Fore Your Information

GR I ZZ LY RAN CH H I GH L I G HT S

Pictured above hamming it up are Jeff Cou-

wenhoven with Scott Kotrc Ernesto Ibarra

and Nate Weber at right is Joe Kurung

James Slater Jason DeHerrera and Jason

Collins

The day was perfect and

friends had a time to

share and catch up on

things At right are

SNGCSA President Jeff

Couwenhoven and Host

Superintendent Mike

Baty

Pictured below are Sean Christensen

Bruce Christensen Terry Williams and

Craig Heitman

Page 15 Fore Your Information

2012 PRE S ID E NT rsquoS CUP CH AM PION S

2012 President Cup

Winner

Wes Leith

Tournament Winners

Closest to the Pin 2

Terry Smith (Above right)

Longest Drive Pat Smyth

(Above)

Most Accurate Drive

Steve Byrne (left)

(Above) Terry Williams

with Jeff Couwenhoven

(Below) Christina Bolsko Paul Watts

Page 6: September/October Issue of Fore Your Information

Page 6 Fore Your Information

E-mail smithphelenachemicalcom

VM (800) 543-0630

Box2417

Mob (530) 864-6443

Paul K Smith Sales Representative

Pest Control Advisor Western Specialty Division

HELENA CHEMICAL COMPANY

3155 Southgate Lane

Chico Ca 95928

Bus (530) 342-4786

(800) 554-5703

Fax (530) 343-9047

Wilberrsquos Sierra Nevada News by Dave Wilber

Certainly the

passing of Jim

Alwine into the

realm of San

Diego will be

mourned by all

of us who

needed his wit

and wisdom on

a regular basis

However Jim

says that he may

be gone but not forgotten We will

miss Jim and wish him the very best at

Bernardo Heights CC Replacing Jim at Stockton

Golf and C C is a former right hand

of Jims Rob Williams Rob was run-

ning the show at Sunnyside CC in

Fresno prior to his selection

Mat Dunmyer has left Valley

Hi CC in Elk Grove to take a posi-

tion at Monarch Beach GC in Laguna

Nigel (thats So Cal once again)

Theres no truth in the rumor that Mat

just wanted to be neighbors with Al-

wine Mats number 1 Jeremiah

Stumph took the reins of VHCC for a

bit but quickly saw the light and ac-

cepted a position as Mats right hand at

Mats new gig leaving Valley Hi open

at the time of this writing

Changes at Edgewood Tahoe

with Brad Wunderlich taking over

Brad was the Assistant Super at

Montreaux in Reno

David Major is the new super

at Tierra Oaks GC in Redding

Dave comes to us from Shady Canyon

CC in the San Diego area and is a past

president of the San Diego Chapter

Lots of talk about manage-

ment groups and management consult-

ants in our area as lots of distressed

properties are being looked at More

than several supers and affiliates in

our area have received calls from man-

agement consulting types who are

looking for info and may be doing it

behind the current supers back Lets

all remember our ethics in

talking about other peo-

ples situations that we

probably really dont know

anything about

Lastly (and I

wonder why I always get

this job---old age I guess)

lets all remember that our monthly

meetings are places where we gather

network educate and enjoy the fruits

of association membership A monthly

meeting isnt really set up as an excuse

for you to try to become a rockstar and

party like one Leave that for Friday

nights in your hometown We should

never have a situation where we

would ever be embarrassed to bring an

official from our course or club to see

what the SNGCSA is all about after

all they may be approving the expense

of association membership and if it

just looks like an excuse to get silly

expect that line item to be on the cut

list And really isnt it a matter of pro-

fessional courtesy Sure have a good

time but remember who you are and

who we are Its hard enough to get

respect these days without pushing it

Pete Bowman and I are

happy to have the task of being on

point to set up meetings for next year

If youd like the honor to host a meet-

ing we would love to fulfill that

dream for you and can make it worth-

while for the club and the association

with our experience in event planning

In fact if Pete and I ever get tired of

doing what we do Im sure that

a Wedding Planning Service is in our

future

Dave Wilber

R E C R E A T I O N -F A M I LY T I M E B Y K U R T I S W O L F O R D

Fore Your Information Page 7

Lets face it being a golf

course superintendent is a difficult

job sometimes When we are in the

middle of the summer season the

pressure is on when its 100 degrees

out in the day with high night time

60 degree temperatures we work a

lot of crazy hours lose lots of sleep

etc Some of us are always con-

nected to the course via cell phones

With working those crazy hours we

sometimes miss out on or are late

to or cannot attend the things that

are most important to us ldquoFAMILY

Stuffrdquo

With the stresses that our

job produces it is very important

that we take care of the things that

matter the most Our families are the

people that help us decompress and

get our minds off our job for a

while ldquoFamily Timerdquo

I have had the pleasure of

working for a few superrsquos in my ca-

reer that have taught me this and a

few other things along the way On

a weekend day off schedule family

time Turn off the phone Spend the

time together doing whatever activ-

ity you all like to do Plan a day trip

The Sacramento region and the Si-

erra Nevada region have lots of

things to offer Most of us love the

outdoors If I had to be stuck inside I

would go crazy

Here is an idea that offers

something for just about everyone

and you can spend just a few hours

to all day doing it The Sacramento

Region has a jewel that is easy to

access and has lots of activities

Most of you know about the Ameri-

can River Parkway The American

River Parkway is 23 miles in length

with paved paths that are designated

as both a State and National Wild

and Scenic River There are 82 miles

+ of other maintained trails in the

American River Parkway that ex-

tend from Folsom Lake to Sacra-

mento These trails include bike

trails equestrian trails hiking trails

and others The Parkway incorpo-

rates four major parks Discovery

Park that is 302-acres in downtown

Sacramento Ancil Hoffman Park

that is 396-acres in Carmichael

River Bend Park which is 444-acres

in Rancho Cordova and William B

Pond Recreation Area at the end of

Arden Way Lake Natomas offers

boating (5 mph max) kayaking etc

Nimbus dam and Nimbus fish hatch-

ery have great events like tours and

the salmon festival Each of these

parks offers numerous activities

The American River is a world class

fishery for steel

head trout

striped bass

and salmon

The bike paths

offer miles of

riding time

(something I

personally use

twice a week)

All the parks

have play-

grounds for the

kids The Effie

Yeaw Nature

Center is great

for all ages and

is very educa-

tional The en-

tire parkway

offers nature

viewing

These

areas within the

parkway I per-

sonally use and

take my family

to anytime I

can Itrsquos where I go to de-stress de-

compress and to have family time

Go and utilize this area with your

family It offers something for eve-

ryone Have Fun and enjoy your

time away from work

Kurtis Wolford

Page 8 Fore Your Information

FROM T HE F I E L D J E F F J E N S E N G C S A A F I E L D S T A F F S O U T H W E S T R E G I O N

As we ap-

proach Novem-

ber and the

start of the

holiday season

I want to re-

mind Sierra

Nevada mem-

bers that next

yearrsquos GCSAA

Education Con-

ference and Golf Industry Show are

going to be hosted by your

neighbor to the south

The 2013 event will take

place at the San Diego Convention

Center The Education Conference

is scheduled for Feb 4-8 with the

Golf Industry Show taking place

Feb 6-7

This yearrsquos Education Con-

ference will feature over 100 semi-

nars providing you the in-depth

education you need to meet todays

challenges and prepare for tomor-

row 16 new seminars have been

added featuring a variety of topics

including turfgrass management

communications finance leader-

ship and technology Led by the

industrys most renowned research-

ers industry experts and superin-

tendents seminars are available in

full-day six-hour half-day and two

-hour formats Education points

are offered for completing the

seminars and enrollment is limited

so register early

The Golf Industry Show

presented by GCSAA and NGCOA

is an innovative trade show de-

signed for owners and operators of

golf facilities and golf course man-

agement professionals Featuring

the largest exhibit floor in the in-

dustry the event combines educa-

tion networking and solutions for

golf course superintendents equip-

ment managers ownersoperators

general managers chief operating

officers and architects and build-

ers

In addition a number of

networking events will be held dur-

ing the conference and show in-

cluding a Welcome Reception

Opening Session General Session

and the19th Annual GCSAA Colle-

giate Turf Bowl

Early conference and show

registration for GCSAA members

begins Nov 1 and can be com-

pleted online at www2gcsaaorg

conferenceregistration We look

(Continued on page 9)

Jeff Jensen

Fore Your Information Page 9

GCSANC 208

SNGCSA 305

CCGCSA (not enough

scores to qualify)

Long Drive Jim Ferrin

CGCS Sun City Roseville

(won a putter)

Closes to Pin Robert Wil-

liams Stockton Country

Club (won a driver)

TPC Stonebrae

Tournament Results

FROM THE FIELD

C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 8

forward to a big turnout from all of our California affiliated chapters and we

appreciate your support of this event as it returns to the West Coast

In closing I would be remiss if I didnrsquot mention the California GCSA

ldquoCalifornia Roomrdquo that will be held Wednesday Feb 6 during conference

and show The annual cocktail party and social will take place this year

aboard the aircraft carrier USS

Midway in San Diego Harbor

The Midway now serves as a na-

val aviation museum and will of-

fer members and guests the oppor-

tunity to tour the carrier and par-

ticipate in flight simulations and

other activities The event was

attended by nearly 600 partici-

pants last year in Las Vegas and this year promises to be even bigger More

information will be forthcoming and registration will be available online at

wwwcaliforniagcsaorg

As always if I can be of any assistance to you please email me at

jjensengcsaaorg and make sure to follow me on Twitter GCSAA_SW

Page 10 Fore Your Information

Russ Mitchell

Boardtronics

Turf Tire Express

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

Fore Your Information Page 11

2012 DELEGATES MEETING B Y J E F F C O U W E N H O V E N

The 2012 delegates meet-

ing was a adventurous one from

before I left to the time I got back

from it Those details can be

spared but the experience I re-

ceived from attending to represent

the SNGCSA was paramount to

understanding more about what it

is that the GCSAA is doing to

help promote our profession In

the next few pages I will be ad-

dressing many of the highlights

and important messages sent

home for myself to distribute to

the members of our association

Sandy Queen the sitting GCSAA

president gave an overview and a

ldquoState of the Associationrdquo address

highlighted by a few things

First he shared informa-

tion about golfer perception of our

profession and the results from

the survey taken were rather

shocking but yet exciting Golf

course superintendents according

to the McMahon survey report

indicated that 79 of golfers felt

that Golf Course Superintendents

are the key to economic success

of our facilities That was the

highest amongst all professionals

at our facilities 62 of all golf-

ers polled felt that we were the

key to golfer satisfaction which

was also the highest amongst all

professionals at our facilities

96 of our employers felt that

Golf Course Superintendents were

the key to the economic vitality of

our facilities tops of all profes-

sionals at our facilities Our over-

all ranking tied with the club man-

agers in level of importance at our

facilities

Second Mr Queen dis-

cussed some things the GCSAA

board are trying to do to raise

funding through the EIFG our

5013c organization that helps the

GCSAA operate provide re-

search and scholarships to our

members and students He also

bundled that note with the fact

that the national headquarters is in

need of repairs and updating and

that the headquarters is going to

undergo a facelift of some sorts

The projects range from improv-

ing the exterior infrastructure

Interior infrastructure and land-

scaping updates that will help pre-

sent our profession in a better

manner The whole cost is to be

estimated at 19 million dollars

This seems like a lot but

when you think about it we own

our building and nothing has

been done to update the facility in

twenty years I will be presenting

the details of the update at our

annual meeting

Following Mr Queenrsquos

address CEO Rhett Evans gave us

a status of the industry address

that highlighted many items that

regard the golf industry as a

whole They ranged from ten

year comparisons of Rounds

course opening and closings as

well as the status of our mainte-

nance budgets He emphasized

the importance of the GCSAA

surveys some of us participate in

every year If we donrsquot partici-

pate we arenrsquot represented in the

data and we might not get signifi-

cant data to accurately provide a

true snapshot of our end of the

business Those details will be

shared at the annual meeting in

November as well

Mr Evans also touched

upon how we are funded how we

spend our funding and what they

are looking to do in the near fu-

ture to help promote and serve

our professional organization

from a staff and operational level

Again these details are going to

be provided in more depth at our

annual meeting in November

He finished off with putting the

(Continued on page 12)

Verti Drain

Service

Bruce Christensen

Minden NV 89423

2754 Kayne Ave Christensen

Turf Products

Christensen Turf Products

Tel (775) 450-2761

Fax (775-267-9382

Email becgolfearthlinknet

Page 12 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 1

GCSAA mission The key points

in this segment were as follows

Serve the membership

Advance our profession

Enhance the enjoyment growth

and vitality of golf

Increase revenues and operating

efficiencies

Following Mr Evans Mr Sean

Hoolehan the chair of the Member

Standards committee gave a pres-

entation of the results of a study

that has been analyzing three

things

Determine if the original goals

of the Professional Develop

Initiative have or are being

met

Determine if GCSAA member-

ships standards have had any

unintended consequences for

the association and its members

that should be addressed mov-

ing forward

Make recommendations on a

future course of action for the

GCSAA in regards to member-

ship standards

The committee went through eve-

rything from our bylaws affiliate

chapter agreement to the member-

ship growth and classification data

available In a nutshell they found

some things that have been occur-

ring that the GCSAA did not think

were going to happen when PDI

was initiated and they range from

the loss of Class A members to sal-

ary information regarding the clas-

sifications The detail of the report

will be provided at the annual

meeting in November Their rec-

ommendations will be provided as

well at the annual meeting for our

membership

Mr Bill Maynard chair of

the membership committee went

through the upcoming affiliate

chapter agreement that we approve

here at the SNGCSA every three

years to be a affiliated chapter of

the GCSAA It was announced

following some discussion that

there will be a one year extension

of the current agreement to get

some more data from the current

affiliated chapters to better imple-

ment the new agreement in the

coming year The reason for this is

that there will be some verbiage

change and there were quite a few

chapters that felt it necessary to

need more time to correctly change

their bylaws and get a membership

vote to approve the changes for the

next agreement This will be a

topic for discussion in the coming

year I do not think it will affect

our chapter but I will research this

matter further and discuss it with

our board

Mr Randquist presented a

proposal for the GCSAA to raise

our dues $25 dollars This would

cover a CPI increase as well as

some operating expenses with rela-

tion to our life insurance provided

through the GCSAA membership

Further details will be discussed at

the annual meeting

We then got to meet the candidates

for the upcoming election that will

occur at GIS Everyone got five

minutes at the podium to give us all

a first impression

Mr Pat Finlen gave us a

vision for his Presidency high-

lighted the importance of the EIFG

and strategies for its growth and

future to help sustain its future He

touched upon the growth of the

GCSAA into Asia and other re-

gions of the world He briefly

noted that the applications for certi-

fication for the first time since PDI

are up

Our current secretarytreasurer was

not present at the meeting due to

family medical issues He will be

(Continued on page 13)

Page 13 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 2

the incoming Vice president

There are two candidates for the

Secretary Treasurer position This

will create a little drama on the floor

of the election since one of the can-

didates will not be elected Both are

current sitting Board members and

they both expressed interest to con-

tinue sitting on the board if not

elected The one that is not elected

into the officer position will need to

be nominated on the floor of the an-

nual election to be eligible for one of

the three open BOD positions

There are then five candidates for

three positions if that occurs The

candidates that are running for that

position are Peter Grass CGCS and

John J OrsquoKeefe CGCS Both offer

up a strong message and I will high-

light them at the upcoming annual

meeting

For the three BOD positions open

there are four candidates

John Fulling CGCS from Kala-

mazoo Country Club in

Kalamazoo Michigan

John Walker from Blackhorse

Golf Club in Cypress Texas

Mark Jordan CGCS from West-

field Group Country Club in

Westfield Center Ohio

Darren J Davis from Olde Flor-

ida Golf Club in Naples

Florida

Out of the four candidates

Darren Davis is the only incumbent

sitting on the current board All will

be highlighted more in the upcoming

annual meeting

On Sunday we heard more

about the Environmental Institute for

Golf or the EIFG The focus is be-

ing made on how to get more mem-

ber support to help its marketability

with industry partners Currently the

support saturation is around 19

amongst current active members

The target has been set to get 51 of

current members to donate to the

EIFG So they have a long way to

go Some ideas to boost funding are

the sale of a superintendents life sup-

port bag These backpacks will have

essential tools and other little trin-

kets in them to be up for sale on the

EIFG website to help boost revenue

The other ideas are through the now

launched Rounds for Research pro-

gram from which many of our mem-

bersrsquo clubs have donated to If you

do not know where to look you can

reach the R4R website from the

GCSAA website or look for it on the

actual auction sit at

wwwbiddingforgoodcom

We received a update from

the Board policy Overview commit-

tee all the GCSAA field Staff repre-

sentatives another update from CEO

Rhett Evans and most

importantly from

Chava McKeel and

John OrsquoKeefe with

regards to the Public

Policy committee It is

here that Chava let us

all know the priority

issues that the GCSAA

is focusing on They

are as follows

American with Dis-

abilities Act

Fertilizers

Labor and Immigration

Pesticides

Value of Golf

Water Management

There will be some slides devoted to

what they have been fighting for at

the annual meeting and we will be

seeing what this group has been ac-

tively participating in at the National

level as well as at the State level for

our profession

So as you can see there was

a lot of information divulged for a

one and a half day meeting There

will be even more information

passed along in the upcoming

months I hope as your delegate that

you bring to me any hot button is-

sues and other items for discussion

as time moves on and I will be sure

to communicate these properly Feel

free to contact me at

jeffcouwenhovengmailcom or on

my phone at 559-250-0694

Page 14 Fore Your Information

GR I ZZ LY RAN CH H I GH L I G HT S

Pictured above hamming it up are Jeff Cou-

wenhoven with Scott Kotrc Ernesto Ibarra

and Nate Weber at right is Joe Kurung

James Slater Jason DeHerrera and Jason

Collins

The day was perfect and

friends had a time to

share and catch up on

things At right are

SNGCSA President Jeff

Couwenhoven and Host

Superintendent Mike

Baty

Pictured below are Sean Christensen

Bruce Christensen Terry Williams and

Craig Heitman

Page 15 Fore Your Information

2012 PRE S ID E NT rsquoS CUP CH AM PION S

2012 President Cup

Winner

Wes Leith

Tournament Winners

Closest to the Pin 2

Terry Smith (Above right)

Longest Drive Pat Smyth

(Above)

Most Accurate Drive

Steve Byrne (left)

(Above) Terry Williams

with Jeff Couwenhoven

(Below) Christina Bolsko Paul Watts

Page 7: September/October Issue of Fore Your Information

R E C R E A T I O N -F A M I LY T I M E B Y K U R T I S W O L F O R D

Fore Your Information Page 7

Lets face it being a golf

course superintendent is a difficult

job sometimes When we are in the

middle of the summer season the

pressure is on when its 100 degrees

out in the day with high night time

60 degree temperatures we work a

lot of crazy hours lose lots of sleep

etc Some of us are always con-

nected to the course via cell phones

With working those crazy hours we

sometimes miss out on or are late

to or cannot attend the things that

are most important to us ldquoFAMILY

Stuffrdquo

With the stresses that our

job produces it is very important

that we take care of the things that

matter the most Our families are the

people that help us decompress and

get our minds off our job for a

while ldquoFamily Timerdquo

I have had the pleasure of

working for a few superrsquos in my ca-

reer that have taught me this and a

few other things along the way On

a weekend day off schedule family

time Turn off the phone Spend the

time together doing whatever activ-

ity you all like to do Plan a day trip

The Sacramento region and the Si-

erra Nevada region have lots of

things to offer Most of us love the

outdoors If I had to be stuck inside I

would go crazy

Here is an idea that offers

something for just about everyone

and you can spend just a few hours

to all day doing it The Sacramento

Region has a jewel that is easy to

access and has lots of activities

Most of you know about the Ameri-

can River Parkway The American

River Parkway is 23 miles in length

with paved paths that are designated

as both a State and National Wild

and Scenic River There are 82 miles

+ of other maintained trails in the

American River Parkway that ex-

tend from Folsom Lake to Sacra-

mento These trails include bike

trails equestrian trails hiking trails

and others The Parkway incorpo-

rates four major parks Discovery

Park that is 302-acres in downtown

Sacramento Ancil Hoffman Park

that is 396-acres in Carmichael

River Bend Park which is 444-acres

in Rancho Cordova and William B

Pond Recreation Area at the end of

Arden Way Lake Natomas offers

boating (5 mph max) kayaking etc

Nimbus dam and Nimbus fish hatch-

ery have great events like tours and

the salmon festival Each of these

parks offers numerous activities

The American River is a world class

fishery for steel

head trout

striped bass

and salmon

The bike paths

offer miles of

riding time

(something I

personally use

twice a week)

All the parks

have play-

grounds for the

kids The Effie

Yeaw Nature

Center is great

for all ages and

is very educa-

tional The en-

tire parkway

offers nature

viewing

These

areas within the

parkway I per-

sonally use and

take my family

to anytime I

can Itrsquos where I go to de-stress de-

compress and to have family time

Go and utilize this area with your

family It offers something for eve-

ryone Have Fun and enjoy your

time away from work

Kurtis Wolford

Page 8 Fore Your Information

FROM T HE F I E L D J E F F J E N S E N G C S A A F I E L D S T A F F S O U T H W E S T R E G I O N

As we ap-

proach Novem-

ber and the

start of the

holiday season

I want to re-

mind Sierra

Nevada mem-

bers that next

yearrsquos GCSAA

Education Con-

ference and Golf Industry Show are

going to be hosted by your

neighbor to the south

The 2013 event will take

place at the San Diego Convention

Center The Education Conference

is scheduled for Feb 4-8 with the

Golf Industry Show taking place

Feb 6-7

This yearrsquos Education Con-

ference will feature over 100 semi-

nars providing you the in-depth

education you need to meet todays

challenges and prepare for tomor-

row 16 new seminars have been

added featuring a variety of topics

including turfgrass management

communications finance leader-

ship and technology Led by the

industrys most renowned research-

ers industry experts and superin-

tendents seminars are available in

full-day six-hour half-day and two

-hour formats Education points

are offered for completing the

seminars and enrollment is limited

so register early

The Golf Industry Show

presented by GCSAA and NGCOA

is an innovative trade show de-

signed for owners and operators of

golf facilities and golf course man-

agement professionals Featuring

the largest exhibit floor in the in-

dustry the event combines educa-

tion networking and solutions for

golf course superintendents equip-

ment managers ownersoperators

general managers chief operating

officers and architects and build-

ers

In addition a number of

networking events will be held dur-

ing the conference and show in-

cluding a Welcome Reception

Opening Session General Session

and the19th Annual GCSAA Colle-

giate Turf Bowl

Early conference and show

registration for GCSAA members

begins Nov 1 and can be com-

pleted online at www2gcsaaorg

conferenceregistration We look

(Continued on page 9)

Jeff Jensen

Fore Your Information Page 9

GCSANC 208

SNGCSA 305

CCGCSA (not enough

scores to qualify)

Long Drive Jim Ferrin

CGCS Sun City Roseville

(won a putter)

Closes to Pin Robert Wil-

liams Stockton Country

Club (won a driver)

TPC Stonebrae

Tournament Results

FROM THE FIELD

C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 8

forward to a big turnout from all of our California affiliated chapters and we

appreciate your support of this event as it returns to the West Coast

In closing I would be remiss if I didnrsquot mention the California GCSA

ldquoCalifornia Roomrdquo that will be held Wednesday Feb 6 during conference

and show The annual cocktail party and social will take place this year

aboard the aircraft carrier USS

Midway in San Diego Harbor

The Midway now serves as a na-

val aviation museum and will of-

fer members and guests the oppor-

tunity to tour the carrier and par-

ticipate in flight simulations and

other activities The event was

attended by nearly 600 partici-

pants last year in Las Vegas and this year promises to be even bigger More

information will be forthcoming and registration will be available online at

wwwcaliforniagcsaorg

As always if I can be of any assistance to you please email me at

jjensengcsaaorg and make sure to follow me on Twitter GCSAA_SW

Page 10 Fore Your Information

Russ Mitchell

Boardtronics

Turf Tire Express

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

Fore Your Information Page 11

2012 DELEGATES MEETING B Y J E F F C O U W E N H O V E N

The 2012 delegates meet-

ing was a adventurous one from

before I left to the time I got back

from it Those details can be

spared but the experience I re-

ceived from attending to represent

the SNGCSA was paramount to

understanding more about what it

is that the GCSAA is doing to

help promote our profession In

the next few pages I will be ad-

dressing many of the highlights

and important messages sent

home for myself to distribute to

the members of our association

Sandy Queen the sitting GCSAA

president gave an overview and a

ldquoState of the Associationrdquo address

highlighted by a few things

First he shared informa-

tion about golfer perception of our

profession and the results from

the survey taken were rather

shocking but yet exciting Golf

course superintendents according

to the McMahon survey report

indicated that 79 of golfers felt

that Golf Course Superintendents

are the key to economic success

of our facilities That was the

highest amongst all professionals

at our facilities 62 of all golf-

ers polled felt that we were the

key to golfer satisfaction which

was also the highest amongst all

professionals at our facilities

96 of our employers felt that

Golf Course Superintendents were

the key to the economic vitality of

our facilities tops of all profes-

sionals at our facilities Our over-

all ranking tied with the club man-

agers in level of importance at our

facilities

Second Mr Queen dis-

cussed some things the GCSAA

board are trying to do to raise

funding through the EIFG our

5013c organization that helps the

GCSAA operate provide re-

search and scholarships to our

members and students He also

bundled that note with the fact

that the national headquarters is in

need of repairs and updating and

that the headquarters is going to

undergo a facelift of some sorts

The projects range from improv-

ing the exterior infrastructure

Interior infrastructure and land-

scaping updates that will help pre-

sent our profession in a better

manner The whole cost is to be

estimated at 19 million dollars

This seems like a lot but

when you think about it we own

our building and nothing has

been done to update the facility in

twenty years I will be presenting

the details of the update at our

annual meeting

Following Mr Queenrsquos

address CEO Rhett Evans gave us

a status of the industry address

that highlighted many items that

regard the golf industry as a

whole They ranged from ten

year comparisons of Rounds

course opening and closings as

well as the status of our mainte-

nance budgets He emphasized

the importance of the GCSAA

surveys some of us participate in

every year If we donrsquot partici-

pate we arenrsquot represented in the

data and we might not get signifi-

cant data to accurately provide a

true snapshot of our end of the

business Those details will be

shared at the annual meeting in

November as well

Mr Evans also touched

upon how we are funded how we

spend our funding and what they

are looking to do in the near fu-

ture to help promote and serve

our professional organization

from a staff and operational level

Again these details are going to

be provided in more depth at our

annual meeting in November

He finished off with putting the

(Continued on page 12)

Verti Drain

Service

Bruce Christensen

Minden NV 89423

2754 Kayne Ave Christensen

Turf Products

Christensen Turf Products

Tel (775) 450-2761

Fax (775-267-9382

Email becgolfearthlinknet

Page 12 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 1

GCSAA mission The key points

in this segment were as follows

Serve the membership

Advance our profession

Enhance the enjoyment growth

and vitality of golf

Increase revenues and operating

efficiencies

Following Mr Evans Mr Sean

Hoolehan the chair of the Member

Standards committee gave a pres-

entation of the results of a study

that has been analyzing three

things

Determine if the original goals

of the Professional Develop

Initiative have or are being

met

Determine if GCSAA member-

ships standards have had any

unintended consequences for

the association and its members

that should be addressed mov-

ing forward

Make recommendations on a

future course of action for the

GCSAA in regards to member-

ship standards

The committee went through eve-

rything from our bylaws affiliate

chapter agreement to the member-

ship growth and classification data

available In a nutshell they found

some things that have been occur-

ring that the GCSAA did not think

were going to happen when PDI

was initiated and they range from

the loss of Class A members to sal-

ary information regarding the clas-

sifications The detail of the report

will be provided at the annual

meeting in November Their rec-

ommendations will be provided as

well at the annual meeting for our

membership

Mr Bill Maynard chair of

the membership committee went

through the upcoming affiliate

chapter agreement that we approve

here at the SNGCSA every three

years to be a affiliated chapter of

the GCSAA It was announced

following some discussion that

there will be a one year extension

of the current agreement to get

some more data from the current

affiliated chapters to better imple-

ment the new agreement in the

coming year The reason for this is

that there will be some verbiage

change and there were quite a few

chapters that felt it necessary to

need more time to correctly change

their bylaws and get a membership

vote to approve the changes for the

next agreement This will be a

topic for discussion in the coming

year I do not think it will affect

our chapter but I will research this

matter further and discuss it with

our board

Mr Randquist presented a

proposal for the GCSAA to raise

our dues $25 dollars This would

cover a CPI increase as well as

some operating expenses with rela-

tion to our life insurance provided

through the GCSAA membership

Further details will be discussed at

the annual meeting

We then got to meet the candidates

for the upcoming election that will

occur at GIS Everyone got five

minutes at the podium to give us all

a first impression

Mr Pat Finlen gave us a

vision for his Presidency high-

lighted the importance of the EIFG

and strategies for its growth and

future to help sustain its future He

touched upon the growth of the

GCSAA into Asia and other re-

gions of the world He briefly

noted that the applications for certi-

fication for the first time since PDI

are up

Our current secretarytreasurer was

not present at the meeting due to

family medical issues He will be

(Continued on page 13)

Page 13 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 2

the incoming Vice president

There are two candidates for the

Secretary Treasurer position This

will create a little drama on the floor

of the election since one of the can-

didates will not be elected Both are

current sitting Board members and

they both expressed interest to con-

tinue sitting on the board if not

elected The one that is not elected

into the officer position will need to

be nominated on the floor of the an-

nual election to be eligible for one of

the three open BOD positions

There are then five candidates for

three positions if that occurs The

candidates that are running for that

position are Peter Grass CGCS and

John J OrsquoKeefe CGCS Both offer

up a strong message and I will high-

light them at the upcoming annual

meeting

For the three BOD positions open

there are four candidates

John Fulling CGCS from Kala-

mazoo Country Club in

Kalamazoo Michigan

John Walker from Blackhorse

Golf Club in Cypress Texas

Mark Jordan CGCS from West-

field Group Country Club in

Westfield Center Ohio

Darren J Davis from Olde Flor-

ida Golf Club in Naples

Florida

Out of the four candidates

Darren Davis is the only incumbent

sitting on the current board All will

be highlighted more in the upcoming

annual meeting

On Sunday we heard more

about the Environmental Institute for

Golf or the EIFG The focus is be-

ing made on how to get more mem-

ber support to help its marketability

with industry partners Currently the

support saturation is around 19

amongst current active members

The target has been set to get 51 of

current members to donate to the

EIFG So they have a long way to

go Some ideas to boost funding are

the sale of a superintendents life sup-

port bag These backpacks will have

essential tools and other little trin-

kets in them to be up for sale on the

EIFG website to help boost revenue

The other ideas are through the now

launched Rounds for Research pro-

gram from which many of our mem-

bersrsquo clubs have donated to If you

do not know where to look you can

reach the R4R website from the

GCSAA website or look for it on the

actual auction sit at

wwwbiddingforgoodcom

We received a update from

the Board policy Overview commit-

tee all the GCSAA field Staff repre-

sentatives another update from CEO

Rhett Evans and most

importantly from

Chava McKeel and

John OrsquoKeefe with

regards to the Public

Policy committee It is

here that Chava let us

all know the priority

issues that the GCSAA

is focusing on They

are as follows

American with Dis-

abilities Act

Fertilizers

Labor and Immigration

Pesticides

Value of Golf

Water Management

There will be some slides devoted to

what they have been fighting for at

the annual meeting and we will be

seeing what this group has been ac-

tively participating in at the National

level as well as at the State level for

our profession

So as you can see there was

a lot of information divulged for a

one and a half day meeting There

will be even more information

passed along in the upcoming

months I hope as your delegate that

you bring to me any hot button is-

sues and other items for discussion

as time moves on and I will be sure

to communicate these properly Feel

free to contact me at

jeffcouwenhovengmailcom or on

my phone at 559-250-0694

Page 14 Fore Your Information

GR I ZZ LY RAN CH H I GH L I G HT S

Pictured above hamming it up are Jeff Cou-

wenhoven with Scott Kotrc Ernesto Ibarra

and Nate Weber at right is Joe Kurung

James Slater Jason DeHerrera and Jason

Collins

The day was perfect and

friends had a time to

share and catch up on

things At right are

SNGCSA President Jeff

Couwenhoven and Host

Superintendent Mike

Baty

Pictured below are Sean Christensen

Bruce Christensen Terry Williams and

Craig Heitman

Page 15 Fore Your Information

2012 PRE S ID E NT rsquoS CUP CH AM PION S

2012 President Cup

Winner

Wes Leith

Tournament Winners

Closest to the Pin 2

Terry Smith (Above right)

Longest Drive Pat Smyth

(Above)

Most Accurate Drive

Steve Byrne (left)

(Above) Terry Williams

with Jeff Couwenhoven

(Below) Christina Bolsko Paul Watts

Page 8: September/October Issue of Fore Your Information

Page 8 Fore Your Information

FROM T HE F I E L D J E F F J E N S E N G C S A A F I E L D S T A F F S O U T H W E S T R E G I O N

As we ap-

proach Novem-

ber and the

start of the

holiday season

I want to re-

mind Sierra

Nevada mem-

bers that next

yearrsquos GCSAA

Education Con-

ference and Golf Industry Show are

going to be hosted by your

neighbor to the south

The 2013 event will take

place at the San Diego Convention

Center The Education Conference

is scheduled for Feb 4-8 with the

Golf Industry Show taking place

Feb 6-7

This yearrsquos Education Con-

ference will feature over 100 semi-

nars providing you the in-depth

education you need to meet todays

challenges and prepare for tomor-

row 16 new seminars have been

added featuring a variety of topics

including turfgrass management

communications finance leader-

ship and technology Led by the

industrys most renowned research-

ers industry experts and superin-

tendents seminars are available in

full-day six-hour half-day and two

-hour formats Education points

are offered for completing the

seminars and enrollment is limited

so register early

The Golf Industry Show

presented by GCSAA and NGCOA

is an innovative trade show de-

signed for owners and operators of

golf facilities and golf course man-

agement professionals Featuring

the largest exhibit floor in the in-

dustry the event combines educa-

tion networking and solutions for

golf course superintendents equip-

ment managers ownersoperators

general managers chief operating

officers and architects and build-

ers

In addition a number of

networking events will be held dur-

ing the conference and show in-

cluding a Welcome Reception

Opening Session General Session

and the19th Annual GCSAA Colle-

giate Turf Bowl

Early conference and show

registration for GCSAA members

begins Nov 1 and can be com-

pleted online at www2gcsaaorg

conferenceregistration We look

(Continued on page 9)

Jeff Jensen

Fore Your Information Page 9

GCSANC 208

SNGCSA 305

CCGCSA (not enough

scores to qualify)

Long Drive Jim Ferrin

CGCS Sun City Roseville

(won a putter)

Closes to Pin Robert Wil-

liams Stockton Country

Club (won a driver)

TPC Stonebrae

Tournament Results

FROM THE FIELD

C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 8

forward to a big turnout from all of our California affiliated chapters and we

appreciate your support of this event as it returns to the West Coast

In closing I would be remiss if I didnrsquot mention the California GCSA

ldquoCalifornia Roomrdquo that will be held Wednesday Feb 6 during conference

and show The annual cocktail party and social will take place this year

aboard the aircraft carrier USS

Midway in San Diego Harbor

The Midway now serves as a na-

val aviation museum and will of-

fer members and guests the oppor-

tunity to tour the carrier and par-

ticipate in flight simulations and

other activities The event was

attended by nearly 600 partici-

pants last year in Las Vegas and this year promises to be even bigger More

information will be forthcoming and registration will be available online at

wwwcaliforniagcsaorg

As always if I can be of any assistance to you please email me at

jjensengcsaaorg and make sure to follow me on Twitter GCSAA_SW

Page 10 Fore Your Information

Russ Mitchell

Boardtronics

Turf Tire Express

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

Fore Your Information Page 11

2012 DELEGATES MEETING B Y J E F F C O U W E N H O V E N

The 2012 delegates meet-

ing was a adventurous one from

before I left to the time I got back

from it Those details can be

spared but the experience I re-

ceived from attending to represent

the SNGCSA was paramount to

understanding more about what it

is that the GCSAA is doing to

help promote our profession In

the next few pages I will be ad-

dressing many of the highlights

and important messages sent

home for myself to distribute to

the members of our association

Sandy Queen the sitting GCSAA

president gave an overview and a

ldquoState of the Associationrdquo address

highlighted by a few things

First he shared informa-

tion about golfer perception of our

profession and the results from

the survey taken were rather

shocking but yet exciting Golf

course superintendents according

to the McMahon survey report

indicated that 79 of golfers felt

that Golf Course Superintendents

are the key to economic success

of our facilities That was the

highest amongst all professionals

at our facilities 62 of all golf-

ers polled felt that we were the

key to golfer satisfaction which

was also the highest amongst all

professionals at our facilities

96 of our employers felt that

Golf Course Superintendents were

the key to the economic vitality of

our facilities tops of all profes-

sionals at our facilities Our over-

all ranking tied with the club man-

agers in level of importance at our

facilities

Second Mr Queen dis-

cussed some things the GCSAA

board are trying to do to raise

funding through the EIFG our

5013c organization that helps the

GCSAA operate provide re-

search and scholarships to our

members and students He also

bundled that note with the fact

that the national headquarters is in

need of repairs and updating and

that the headquarters is going to

undergo a facelift of some sorts

The projects range from improv-

ing the exterior infrastructure

Interior infrastructure and land-

scaping updates that will help pre-

sent our profession in a better

manner The whole cost is to be

estimated at 19 million dollars

This seems like a lot but

when you think about it we own

our building and nothing has

been done to update the facility in

twenty years I will be presenting

the details of the update at our

annual meeting

Following Mr Queenrsquos

address CEO Rhett Evans gave us

a status of the industry address

that highlighted many items that

regard the golf industry as a

whole They ranged from ten

year comparisons of Rounds

course opening and closings as

well as the status of our mainte-

nance budgets He emphasized

the importance of the GCSAA

surveys some of us participate in

every year If we donrsquot partici-

pate we arenrsquot represented in the

data and we might not get signifi-

cant data to accurately provide a

true snapshot of our end of the

business Those details will be

shared at the annual meeting in

November as well

Mr Evans also touched

upon how we are funded how we

spend our funding and what they

are looking to do in the near fu-

ture to help promote and serve

our professional organization

from a staff and operational level

Again these details are going to

be provided in more depth at our

annual meeting in November

He finished off with putting the

(Continued on page 12)

Verti Drain

Service

Bruce Christensen

Minden NV 89423

2754 Kayne Ave Christensen

Turf Products

Christensen Turf Products

Tel (775) 450-2761

Fax (775-267-9382

Email becgolfearthlinknet

Page 12 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 1

GCSAA mission The key points

in this segment were as follows

Serve the membership

Advance our profession

Enhance the enjoyment growth

and vitality of golf

Increase revenues and operating

efficiencies

Following Mr Evans Mr Sean

Hoolehan the chair of the Member

Standards committee gave a pres-

entation of the results of a study

that has been analyzing three

things

Determine if the original goals

of the Professional Develop

Initiative have or are being

met

Determine if GCSAA member-

ships standards have had any

unintended consequences for

the association and its members

that should be addressed mov-

ing forward

Make recommendations on a

future course of action for the

GCSAA in regards to member-

ship standards

The committee went through eve-

rything from our bylaws affiliate

chapter agreement to the member-

ship growth and classification data

available In a nutshell they found

some things that have been occur-

ring that the GCSAA did not think

were going to happen when PDI

was initiated and they range from

the loss of Class A members to sal-

ary information regarding the clas-

sifications The detail of the report

will be provided at the annual

meeting in November Their rec-

ommendations will be provided as

well at the annual meeting for our

membership

Mr Bill Maynard chair of

the membership committee went

through the upcoming affiliate

chapter agreement that we approve

here at the SNGCSA every three

years to be a affiliated chapter of

the GCSAA It was announced

following some discussion that

there will be a one year extension

of the current agreement to get

some more data from the current

affiliated chapters to better imple-

ment the new agreement in the

coming year The reason for this is

that there will be some verbiage

change and there were quite a few

chapters that felt it necessary to

need more time to correctly change

their bylaws and get a membership

vote to approve the changes for the

next agreement This will be a

topic for discussion in the coming

year I do not think it will affect

our chapter but I will research this

matter further and discuss it with

our board

Mr Randquist presented a

proposal for the GCSAA to raise

our dues $25 dollars This would

cover a CPI increase as well as

some operating expenses with rela-

tion to our life insurance provided

through the GCSAA membership

Further details will be discussed at

the annual meeting

We then got to meet the candidates

for the upcoming election that will

occur at GIS Everyone got five

minutes at the podium to give us all

a first impression

Mr Pat Finlen gave us a

vision for his Presidency high-

lighted the importance of the EIFG

and strategies for its growth and

future to help sustain its future He

touched upon the growth of the

GCSAA into Asia and other re-

gions of the world He briefly

noted that the applications for certi-

fication for the first time since PDI

are up

Our current secretarytreasurer was

not present at the meeting due to

family medical issues He will be

(Continued on page 13)

Page 13 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 2

the incoming Vice president

There are two candidates for the

Secretary Treasurer position This

will create a little drama on the floor

of the election since one of the can-

didates will not be elected Both are

current sitting Board members and

they both expressed interest to con-

tinue sitting on the board if not

elected The one that is not elected

into the officer position will need to

be nominated on the floor of the an-

nual election to be eligible for one of

the three open BOD positions

There are then five candidates for

three positions if that occurs The

candidates that are running for that

position are Peter Grass CGCS and

John J OrsquoKeefe CGCS Both offer

up a strong message and I will high-

light them at the upcoming annual

meeting

For the three BOD positions open

there are four candidates

John Fulling CGCS from Kala-

mazoo Country Club in

Kalamazoo Michigan

John Walker from Blackhorse

Golf Club in Cypress Texas

Mark Jordan CGCS from West-

field Group Country Club in

Westfield Center Ohio

Darren J Davis from Olde Flor-

ida Golf Club in Naples

Florida

Out of the four candidates

Darren Davis is the only incumbent

sitting on the current board All will

be highlighted more in the upcoming

annual meeting

On Sunday we heard more

about the Environmental Institute for

Golf or the EIFG The focus is be-

ing made on how to get more mem-

ber support to help its marketability

with industry partners Currently the

support saturation is around 19

amongst current active members

The target has been set to get 51 of

current members to donate to the

EIFG So they have a long way to

go Some ideas to boost funding are

the sale of a superintendents life sup-

port bag These backpacks will have

essential tools and other little trin-

kets in them to be up for sale on the

EIFG website to help boost revenue

The other ideas are through the now

launched Rounds for Research pro-

gram from which many of our mem-

bersrsquo clubs have donated to If you

do not know where to look you can

reach the R4R website from the

GCSAA website or look for it on the

actual auction sit at

wwwbiddingforgoodcom

We received a update from

the Board policy Overview commit-

tee all the GCSAA field Staff repre-

sentatives another update from CEO

Rhett Evans and most

importantly from

Chava McKeel and

John OrsquoKeefe with

regards to the Public

Policy committee It is

here that Chava let us

all know the priority

issues that the GCSAA

is focusing on They

are as follows

American with Dis-

abilities Act

Fertilizers

Labor and Immigration

Pesticides

Value of Golf

Water Management

There will be some slides devoted to

what they have been fighting for at

the annual meeting and we will be

seeing what this group has been ac-

tively participating in at the National

level as well as at the State level for

our profession

So as you can see there was

a lot of information divulged for a

one and a half day meeting There

will be even more information

passed along in the upcoming

months I hope as your delegate that

you bring to me any hot button is-

sues and other items for discussion

as time moves on and I will be sure

to communicate these properly Feel

free to contact me at

jeffcouwenhovengmailcom or on

my phone at 559-250-0694

Page 14 Fore Your Information

GR I ZZ LY RAN CH H I GH L I G HT S

Pictured above hamming it up are Jeff Cou-

wenhoven with Scott Kotrc Ernesto Ibarra

and Nate Weber at right is Joe Kurung

James Slater Jason DeHerrera and Jason

Collins

The day was perfect and

friends had a time to

share and catch up on

things At right are

SNGCSA President Jeff

Couwenhoven and Host

Superintendent Mike

Baty

Pictured below are Sean Christensen

Bruce Christensen Terry Williams and

Craig Heitman

Page 15 Fore Your Information

2012 PRE S ID E NT rsquoS CUP CH AM PION S

2012 President Cup

Winner

Wes Leith

Tournament Winners

Closest to the Pin 2

Terry Smith (Above right)

Longest Drive Pat Smyth

(Above)

Most Accurate Drive

Steve Byrne (left)

(Above) Terry Williams

with Jeff Couwenhoven

(Below) Christina Bolsko Paul Watts

Page 9: September/October Issue of Fore Your Information

Fore Your Information Page 9

GCSANC 208

SNGCSA 305

CCGCSA (not enough

scores to qualify)

Long Drive Jim Ferrin

CGCS Sun City Roseville

(won a putter)

Closes to Pin Robert Wil-

liams Stockton Country

Club (won a driver)

TPC Stonebrae

Tournament Results

FROM THE FIELD

C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 8

forward to a big turnout from all of our California affiliated chapters and we

appreciate your support of this event as it returns to the West Coast

In closing I would be remiss if I didnrsquot mention the California GCSA

ldquoCalifornia Roomrdquo that will be held Wednesday Feb 6 during conference

and show The annual cocktail party and social will take place this year

aboard the aircraft carrier USS

Midway in San Diego Harbor

The Midway now serves as a na-

val aviation museum and will of-

fer members and guests the oppor-

tunity to tour the carrier and par-

ticipate in flight simulations and

other activities The event was

attended by nearly 600 partici-

pants last year in Las Vegas and this year promises to be even bigger More

information will be forthcoming and registration will be available online at

wwwcaliforniagcsaorg

As always if I can be of any assistance to you please email me at

jjensengcsaaorg and make sure to follow me on Twitter GCSAA_SW

Page 10 Fore Your Information

Russ Mitchell

Boardtronics

Turf Tire Express

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

Fore Your Information Page 11

2012 DELEGATES MEETING B Y J E F F C O U W E N H O V E N

The 2012 delegates meet-

ing was a adventurous one from

before I left to the time I got back

from it Those details can be

spared but the experience I re-

ceived from attending to represent

the SNGCSA was paramount to

understanding more about what it

is that the GCSAA is doing to

help promote our profession In

the next few pages I will be ad-

dressing many of the highlights

and important messages sent

home for myself to distribute to

the members of our association

Sandy Queen the sitting GCSAA

president gave an overview and a

ldquoState of the Associationrdquo address

highlighted by a few things

First he shared informa-

tion about golfer perception of our

profession and the results from

the survey taken were rather

shocking but yet exciting Golf

course superintendents according

to the McMahon survey report

indicated that 79 of golfers felt

that Golf Course Superintendents

are the key to economic success

of our facilities That was the

highest amongst all professionals

at our facilities 62 of all golf-

ers polled felt that we were the

key to golfer satisfaction which

was also the highest amongst all

professionals at our facilities

96 of our employers felt that

Golf Course Superintendents were

the key to the economic vitality of

our facilities tops of all profes-

sionals at our facilities Our over-

all ranking tied with the club man-

agers in level of importance at our

facilities

Second Mr Queen dis-

cussed some things the GCSAA

board are trying to do to raise

funding through the EIFG our

5013c organization that helps the

GCSAA operate provide re-

search and scholarships to our

members and students He also

bundled that note with the fact

that the national headquarters is in

need of repairs and updating and

that the headquarters is going to

undergo a facelift of some sorts

The projects range from improv-

ing the exterior infrastructure

Interior infrastructure and land-

scaping updates that will help pre-

sent our profession in a better

manner The whole cost is to be

estimated at 19 million dollars

This seems like a lot but

when you think about it we own

our building and nothing has

been done to update the facility in

twenty years I will be presenting

the details of the update at our

annual meeting

Following Mr Queenrsquos

address CEO Rhett Evans gave us

a status of the industry address

that highlighted many items that

regard the golf industry as a

whole They ranged from ten

year comparisons of Rounds

course opening and closings as

well as the status of our mainte-

nance budgets He emphasized

the importance of the GCSAA

surveys some of us participate in

every year If we donrsquot partici-

pate we arenrsquot represented in the

data and we might not get signifi-

cant data to accurately provide a

true snapshot of our end of the

business Those details will be

shared at the annual meeting in

November as well

Mr Evans also touched

upon how we are funded how we

spend our funding and what they

are looking to do in the near fu-

ture to help promote and serve

our professional organization

from a staff and operational level

Again these details are going to

be provided in more depth at our

annual meeting in November

He finished off with putting the

(Continued on page 12)

Verti Drain

Service

Bruce Christensen

Minden NV 89423

2754 Kayne Ave Christensen

Turf Products

Christensen Turf Products

Tel (775) 450-2761

Fax (775-267-9382

Email becgolfearthlinknet

Page 12 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 1

GCSAA mission The key points

in this segment were as follows

Serve the membership

Advance our profession

Enhance the enjoyment growth

and vitality of golf

Increase revenues and operating

efficiencies

Following Mr Evans Mr Sean

Hoolehan the chair of the Member

Standards committee gave a pres-

entation of the results of a study

that has been analyzing three

things

Determine if the original goals

of the Professional Develop

Initiative have or are being

met

Determine if GCSAA member-

ships standards have had any

unintended consequences for

the association and its members

that should be addressed mov-

ing forward

Make recommendations on a

future course of action for the

GCSAA in regards to member-

ship standards

The committee went through eve-

rything from our bylaws affiliate

chapter agreement to the member-

ship growth and classification data

available In a nutshell they found

some things that have been occur-

ring that the GCSAA did not think

were going to happen when PDI

was initiated and they range from

the loss of Class A members to sal-

ary information regarding the clas-

sifications The detail of the report

will be provided at the annual

meeting in November Their rec-

ommendations will be provided as

well at the annual meeting for our

membership

Mr Bill Maynard chair of

the membership committee went

through the upcoming affiliate

chapter agreement that we approve

here at the SNGCSA every three

years to be a affiliated chapter of

the GCSAA It was announced

following some discussion that

there will be a one year extension

of the current agreement to get

some more data from the current

affiliated chapters to better imple-

ment the new agreement in the

coming year The reason for this is

that there will be some verbiage

change and there were quite a few

chapters that felt it necessary to

need more time to correctly change

their bylaws and get a membership

vote to approve the changes for the

next agreement This will be a

topic for discussion in the coming

year I do not think it will affect

our chapter but I will research this

matter further and discuss it with

our board

Mr Randquist presented a

proposal for the GCSAA to raise

our dues $25 dollars This would

cover a CPI increase as well as

some operating expenses with rela-

tion to our life insurance provided

through the GCSAA membership

Further details will be discussed at

the annual meeting

We then got to meet the candidates

for the upcoming election that will

occur at GIS Everyone got five

minutes at the podium to give us all

a first impression

Mr Pat Finlen gave us a

vision for his Presidency high-

lighted the importance of the EIFG

and strategies for its growth and

future to help sustain its future He

touched upon the growth of the

GCSAA into Asia and other re-

gions of the world He briefly

noted that the applications for certi-

fication for the first time since PDI

are up

Our current secretarytreasurer was

not present at the meeting due to

family medical issues He will be

(Continued on page 13)

Page 13 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 2

the incoming Vice president

There are two candidates for the

Secretary Treasurer position This

will create a little drama on the floor

of the election since one of the can-

didates will not be elected Both are

current sitting Board members and

they both expressed interest to con-

tinue sitting on the board if not

elected The one that is not elected

into the officer position will need to

be nominated on the floor of the an-

nual election to be eligible for one of

the three open BOD positions

There are then five candidates for

three positions if that occurs The

candidates that are running for that

position are Peter Grass CGCS and

John J OrsquoKeefe CGCS Both offer

up a strong message and I will high-

light them at the upcoming annual

meeting

For the three BOD positions open

there are four candidates

John Fulling CGCS from Kala-

mazoo Country Club in

Kalamazoo Michigan

John Walker from Blackhorse

Golf Club in Cypress Texas

Mark Jordan CGCS from West-

field Group Country Club in

Westfield Center Ohio

Darren J Davis from Olde Flor-

ida Golf Club in Naples

Florida

Out of the four candidates

Darren Davis is the only incumbent

sitting on the current board All will

be highlighted more in the upcoming

annual meeting

On Sunday we heard more

about the Environmental Institute for

Golf or the EIFG The focus is be-

ing made on how to get more mem-

ber support to help its marketability

with industry partners Currently the

support saturation is around 19

amongst current active members

The target has been set to get 51 of

current members to donate to the

EIFG So they have a long way to

go Some ideas to boost funding are

the sale of a superintendents life sup-

port bag These backpacks will have

essential tools and other little trin-

kets in them to be up for sale on the

EIFG website to help boost revenue

The other ideas are through the now

launched Rounds for Research pro-

gram from which many of our mem-

bersrsquo clubs have donated to If you

do not know where to look you can

reach the R4R website from the

GCSAA website or look for it on the

actual auction sit at

wwwbiddingforgoodcom

We received a update from

the Board policy Overview commit-

tee all the GCSAA field Staff repre-

sentatives another update from CEO

Rhett Evans and most

importantly from

Chava McKeel and

John OrsquoKeefe with

regards to the Public

Policy committee It is

here that Chava let us

all know the priority

issues that the GCSAA

is focusing on They

are as follows

American with Dis-

abilities Act

Fertilizers

Labor and Immigration

Pesticides

Value of Golf

Water Management

There will be some slides devoted to

what they have been fighting for at

the annual meeting and we will be

seeing what this group has been ac-

tively participating in at the National

level as well as at the State level for

our profession

So as you can see there was

a lot of information divulged for a

one and a half day meeting There

will be even more information

passed along in the upcoming

months I hope as your delegate that

you bring to me any hot button is-

sues and other items for discussion

as time moves on and I will be sure

to communicate these properly Feel

free to contact me at

jeffcouwenhovengmailcom or on

my phone at 559-250-0694

Page 14 Fore Your Information

GR I ZZ LY RAN CH H I GH L I G HT S

Pictured above hamming it up are Jeff Cou-

wenhoven with Scott Kotrc Ernesto Ibarra

and Nate Weber at right is Joe Kurung

James Slater Jason DeHerrera and Jason

Collins

The day was perfect and

friends had a time to

share and catch up on

things At right are

SNGCSA President Jeff

Couwenhoven and Host

Superintendent Mike

Baty

Pictured below are Sean Christensen

Bruce Christensen Terry Williams and

Craig Heitman

Page 15 Fore Your Information

2012 PRE S ID E NT rsquoS CUP CH AM PION S

2012 President Cup

Winner

Wes Leith

Tournament Winners

Closest to the Pin 2

Terry Smith (Above right)

Longest Drive Pat Smyth

(Above)

Most Accurate Drive

Steve Byrne (left)

(Above) Terry Williams

with Jeff Couwenhoven

(Below) Christina Bolsko Paul Watts

Page 10: September/October Issue of Fore Your Information

Page 10 Fore Your Information

Russ Mitchell

Boardtronics

Turf Tire Express

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

Fore Your Information Page 11

2012 DELEGATES MEETING B Y J E F F C O U W E N H O V E N

The 2012 delegates meet-

ing was a adventurous one from

before I left to the time I got back

from it Those details can be

spared but the experience I re-

ceived from attending to represent

the SNGCSA was paramount to

understanding more about what it

is that the GCSAA is doing to

help promote our profession In

the next few pages I will be ad-

dressing many of the highlights

and important messages sent

home for myself to distribute to

the members of our association

Sandy Queen the sitting GCSAA

president gave an overview and a

ldquoState of the Associationrdquo address

highlighted by a few things

First he shared informa-

tion about golfer perception of our

profession and the results from

the survey taken were rather

shocking but yet exciting Golf

course superintendents according

to the McMahon survey report

indicated that 79 of golfers felt

that Golf Course Superintendents

are the key to economic success

of our facilities That was the

highest amongst all professionals

at our facilities 62 of all golf-

ers polled felt that we were the

key to golfer satisfaction which

was also the highest amongst all

professionals at our facilities

96 of our employers felt that

Golf Course Superintendents were

the key to the economic vitality of

our facilities tops of all profes-

sionals at our facilities Our over-

all ranking tied with the club man-

agers in level of importance at our

facilities

Second Mr Queen dis-

cussed some things the GCSAA

board are trying to do to raise

funding through the EIFG our

5013c organization that helps the

GCSAA operate provide re-

search and scholarships to our

members and students He also

bundled that note with the fact

that the national headquarters is in

need of repairs and updating and

that the headquarters is going to

undergo a facelift of some sorts

The projects range from improv-

ing the exterior infrastructure

Interior infrastructure and land-

scaping updates that will help pre-

sent our profession in a better

manner The whole cost is to be

estimated at 19 million dollars

This seems like a lot but

when you think about it we own

our building and nothing has

been done to update the facility in

twenty years I will be presenting

the details of the update at our

annual meeting

Following Mr Queenrsquos

address CEO Rhett Evans gave us

a status of the industry address

that highlighted many items that

regard the golf industry as a

whole They ranged from ten

year comparisons of Rounds

course opening and closings as

well as the status of our mainte-

nance budgets He emphasized

the importance of the GCSAA

surveys some of us participate in

every year If we donrsquot partici-

pate we arenrsquot represented in the

data and we might not get signifi-

cant data to accurately provide a

true snapshot of our end of the

business Those details will be

shared at the annual meeting in

November as well

Mr Evans also touched

upon how we are funded how we

spend our funding and what they

are looking to do in the near fu-

ture to help promote and serve

our professional organization

from a staff and operational level

Again these details are going to

be provided in more depth at our

annual meeting in November

He finished off with putting the

(Continued on page 12)

Verti Drain

Service

Bruce Christensen

Minden NV 89423

2754 Kayne Ave Christensen

Turf Products

Christensen Turf Products

Tel (775) 450-2761

Fax (775-267-9382

Email becgolfearthlinknet

Page 12 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 1

GCSAA mission The key points

in this segment were as follows

Serve the membership

Advance our profession

Enhance the enjoyment growth

and vitality of golf

Increase revenues and operating

efficiencies

Following Mr Evans Mr Sean

Hoolehan the chair of the Member

Standards committee gave a pres-

entation of the results of a study

that has been analyzing three

things

Determine if the original goals

of the Professional Develop

Initiative have or are being

met

Determine if GCSAA member-

ships standards have had any

unintended consequences for

the association and its members

that should be addressed mov-

ing forward

Make recommendations on a

future course of action for the

GCSAA in regards to member-

ship standards

The committee went through eve-

rything from our bylaws affiliate

chapter agreement to the member-

ship growth and classification data

available In a nutshell they found

some things that have been occur-

ring that the GCSAA did not think

were going to happen when PDI

was initiated and they range from

the loss of Class A members to sal-

ary information regarding the clas-

sifications The detail of the report

will be provided at the annual

meeting in November Their rec-

ommendations will be provided as

well at the annual meeting for our

membership

Mr Bill Maynard chair of

the membership committee went

through the upcoming affiliate

chapter agreement that we approve

here at the SNGCSA every three

years to be a affiliated chapter of

the GCSAA It was announced

following some discussion that

there will be a one year extension

of the current agreement to get

some more data from the current

affiliated chapters to better imple-

ment the new agreement in the

coming year The reason for this is

that there will be some verbiage

change and there were quite a few

chapters that felt it necessary to

need more time to correctly change

their bylaws and get a membership

vote to approve the changes for the

next agreement This will be a

topic for discussion in the coming

year I do not think it will affect

our chapter but I will research this

matter further and discuss it with

our board

Mr Randquist presented a

proposal for the GCSAA to raise

our dues $25 dollars This would

cover a CPI increase as well as

some operating expenses with rela-

tion to our life insurance provided

through the GCSAA membership

Further details will be discussed at

the annual meeting

We then got to meet the candidates

for the upcoming election that will

occur at GIS Everyone got five

minutes at the podium to give us all

a first impression

Mr Pat Finlen gave us a

vision for his Presidency high-

lighted the importance of the EIFG

and strategies for its growth and

future to help sustain its future He

touched upon the growth of the

GCSAA into Asia and other re-

gions of the world He briefly

noted that the applications for certi-

fication for the first time since PDI

are up

Our current secretarytreasurer was

not present at the meeting due to

family medical issues He will be

(Continued on page 13)

Page 13 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 2

the incoming Vice president

There are two candidates for the

Secretary Treasurer position This

will create a little drama on the floor

of the election since one of the can-

didates will not be elected Both are

current sitting Board members and

they both expressed interest to con-

tinue sitting on the board if not

elected The one that is not elected

into the officer position will need to

be nominated on the floor of the an-

nual election to be eligible for one of

the three open BOD positions

There are then five candidates for

three positions if that occurs The

candidates that are running for that

position are Peter Grass CGCS and

John J OrsquoKeefe CGCS Both offer

up a strong message and I will high-

light them at the upcoming annual

meeting

For the three BOD positions open

there are four candidates

John Fulling CGCS from Kala-

mazoo Country Club in

Kalamazoo Michigan

John Walker from Blackhorse

Golf Club in Cypress Texas

Mark Jordan CGCS from West-

field Group Country Club in

Westfield Center Ohio

Darren J Davis from Olde Flor-

ida Golf Club in Naples

Florida

Out of the four candidates

Darren Davis is the only incumbent

sitting on the current board All will

be highlighted more in the upcoming

annual meeting

On Sunday we heard more

about the Environmental Institute for

Golf or the EIFG The focus is be-

ing made on how to get more mem-

ber support to help its marketability

with industry partners Currently the

support saturation is around 19

amongst current active members

The target has been set to get 51 of

current members to donate to the

EIFG So they have a long way to

go Some ideas to boost funding are

the sale of a superintendents life sup-

port bag These backpacks will have

essential tools and other little trin-

kets in them to be up for sale on the

EIFG website to help boost revenue

The other ideas are through the now

launched Rounds for Research pro-

gram from which many of our mem-

bersrsquo clubs have donated to If you

do not know where to look you can

reach the R4R website from the

GCSAA website or look for it on the

actual auction sit at

wwwbiddingforgoodcom

We received a update from

the Board policy Overview commit-

tee all the GCSAA field Staff repre-

sentatives another update from CEO

Rhett Evans and most

importantly from

Chava McKeel and

John OrsquoKeefe with

regards to the Public

Policy committee It is

here that Chava let us

all know the priority

issues that the GCSAA

is focusing on They

are as follows

American with Dis-

abilities Act

Fertilizers

Labor and Immigration

Pesticides

Value of Golf

Water Management

There will be some slides devoted to

what they have been fighting for at

the annual meeting and we will be

seeing what this group has been ac-

tively participating in at the National

level as well as at the State level for

our profession

So as you can see there was

a lot of information divulged for a

one and a half day meeting There

will be even more information

passed along in the upcoming

months I hope as your delegate that

you bring to me any hot button is-

sues and other items for discussion

as time moves on and I will be sure

to communicate these properly Feel

free to contact me at

jeffcouwenhovengmailcom or on

my phone at 559-250-0694

Page 14 Fore Your Information

GR I ZZ LY RAN CH H I GH L I G HT S

Pictured above hamming it up are Jeff Cou-

wenhoven with Scott Kotrc Ernesto Ibarra

and Nate Weber at right is Joe Kurung

James Slater Jason DeHerrera and Jason

Collins

The day was perfect and

friends had a time to

share and catch up on

things At right are

SNGCSA President Jeff

Couwenhoven and Host

Superintendent Mike

Baty

Pictured below are Sean Christensen

Bruce Christensen Terry Williams and

Craig Heitman

Page 15 Fore Your Information

2012 PRE S ID E NT rsquoS CUP CH AM PION S

2012 President Cup

Winner

Wes Leith

Tournament Winners

Closest to the Pin 2

Terry Smith (Above right)

Longest Drive Pat Smyth

(Above)

Most Accurate Drive

Steve Byrne (left)

(Above) Terry Williams

with Jeff Couwenhoven

(Below) Christina Bolsko Paul Watts

Page 11: September/October Issue of Fore Your Information

Fore Your Information Page 11

2012 DELEGATES MEETING B Y J E F F C O U W E N H O V E N

The 2012 delegates meet-

ing was a adventurous one from

before I left to the time I got back

from it Those details can be

spared but the experience I re-

ceived from attending to represent

the SNGCSA was paramount to

understanding more about what it

is that the GCSAA is doing to

help promote our profession In

the next few pages I will be ad-

dressing many of the highlights

and important messages sent

home for myself to distribute to

the members of our association

Sandy Queen the sitting GCSAA

president gave an overview and a

ldquoState of the Associationrdquo address

highlighted by a few things

First he shared informa-

tion about golfer perception of our

profession and the results from

the survey taken were rather

shocking but yet exciting Golf

course superintendents according

to the McMahon survey report

indicated that 79 of golfers felt

that Golf Course Superintendents

are the key to economic success

of our facilities That was the

highest amongst all professionals

at our facilities 62 of all golf-

ers polled felt that we were the

key to golfer satisfaction which

was also the highest amongst all

professionals at our facilities

96 of our employers felt that

Golf Course Superintendents were

the key to the economic vitality of

our facilities tops of all profes-

sionals at our facilities Our over-

all ranking tied with the club man-

agers in level of importance at our

facilities

Second Mr Queen dis-

cussed some things the GCSAA

board are trying to do to raise

funding through the EIFG our

5013c organization that helps the

GCSAA operate provide re-

search and scholarships to our

members and students He also

bundled that note with the fact

that the national headquarters is in

need of repairs and updating and

that the headquarters is going to

undergo a facelift of some sorts

The projects range from improv-

ing the exterior infrastructure

Interior infrastructure and land-

scaping updates that will help pre-

sent our profession in a better

manner The whole cost is to be

estimated at 19 million dollars

This seems like a lot but

when you think about it we own

our building and nothing has

been done to update the facility in

twenty years I will be presenting

the details of the update at our

annual meeting

Following Mr Queenrsquos

address CEO Rhett Evans gave us

a status of the industry address

that highlighted many items that

regard the golf industry as a

whole They ranged from ten

year comparisons of Rounds

course opening and closings as

well as the status of our mainte-

nance budgets He emphasized

the importance of the GCSAA

surveys some of us participate in

every year If we donrsquot partici-

pate we arenrsquot represented in the

data and we might not get signifi-

cant data to accurately provide a

true snapshot of our end of the

business Those details will be

shared at the annual meeting in

November as well

Mr Evans also touched

upon how we are funded how we

spend our funding and what they

are looking to do in the near fu-

ture to help promote and serve

our professional organization

from a staff and operational level

Again these details are going to

be provided in more depth at our

annual meeting in November

He finished off with putting the

(Continued on page 12)

Verti Drain

Service

Bruce Christensen

Minden NV 89423

2754 Kayne Ave Christensen

Turf Products

Christensen Turf Products

Tel (775) 450-2761

Fax (775-267-9382

Email becgolfearthlinknet

Page 12 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 1

GCSAA mission The key points

in this segment were as follows

Serve the membership

Advance our profession

Enhance the enjoyment growth

and vitality of golf

Increase revenues and operating

efficiencies

Following Mr Evans Mr Sean

Hoolehan the chair of the Member

Standards committee gave a pres-

entation of the results of a study

that has been analyzing three

things

Determine if the original goals

of the Professional Develop

Initiative have or are being

met

Determine if GCSAA member-

ships standards have had any

unintended consequences for

the association and its members

that should be addressed mov-

ing forward

Make recommendations on a

future course of action for the

GCSAA in regards to member-

ship standards

The committee went through eve-

rything from our bylaws affiliate

chapter agreement to the member-

ship growth and classification data

available In a nutshell they found

some things that have been occur-

ring that the GCSAA did not think

were going to happen when PDI

was initiated and they range from

the loss of Class A members to sal-

ary information regarding the clas-

sifications The detail of the report

will be provided at the annual

meeting in November Their rec-

ommendations will be provided as

well at the annual meeting for our

membership

Mr Bill Maynard chair of

the membership committee went

through the upcoming affiliate

chapter agreement that we approve

here at the SNGCSA every three

years to be a affiliated chapter of

the GCSAA It was announced

following some discussion that

there will be a one year extension

of the current agreement to get

some more data from the current

affiliated chapters to better imple-

ment the new agreement in the

coming year The reason for this is

that there will be some verbiage

change and there were quite a few

chapters that felt it necessary to

need more time to correctly change

their bylaws and get a membership

vote to approve the changes for the

next agreement This will be a

topic for discussion in the coming

year I do not think it will affect

our chapter but I will research this

matter further and discuss it with

our board

Mr Randquist presented a

proposal for the GCSAA to raise

our dues $25 dollars This would

cover a CPI increase as well as

some operating expenses with rela-

tion to our life insurance provided

through the GCSAA membership

Further details will be discussed at

the annual meeting

We then got to meet the candidates

for the upcoming election that will

occur at GIS Everyone got five

minutes at the podium to give us all

a first impression

Mr Pat Finlen gave us a

vision for his Presidency high-

lighted the importance of the EIFG

and strategies for its growth and

future to help sustain its future He

touched upon the growth of the

GCSAA into Asia and other re-

gions of the world He briefly

noted that the applications for certi-

fication for the first time since PDI

are up

Our current secretarytreasurer was

not present at the meeting due to

family medical issues He will be

(Continued on page 13)

Page 13 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 2

the incoming Vice president

There are two candidates for the

Secretary Treasurer position This

will create a little drama on the floor

of the election since one of the can-

didates will not be elected Both are

current sitting Board members and

they both expressed interest to con-

tinue sitting on the board if not

elected The one that is not elected

into the officer position will need to

be nominated on the floor of the an-

nual election to be eligible for one of

the three open BOD positions

There are then five candidates for

three positions if that occurs The

candidates that are running for that

position are Peter Grass CGCS and

John J OrsquoKeefe CGCS Both offer

up a strong message and I will high-

light them at the upcoming annual

meeting

For the three BOD positions open

there are four candidates

John Fulling CGCS from Kala-

mazoo Country Club in

Kalamazoo Michigan

John Walker from Blackhorse

Golf Club in Cypress Texas

Mark Jordan CGCS from West-

field Group Country Club in

Westfield Center Ohio

Darren J Davis from Olde Flor-

ida Golf Club in Naples

Florida

Out of the four candidates

Darren Davis is the only incumbent

sitting on the current board All will

be highlighted more in the upcoming

annual meeting

On Sunday we heard more

about the Environmental Institute for

Golf or the EIFG The focus is be-

ing made on how to get more mem-

ber support to help its marketability

with industry partners Currently the

support saturation is around 19

amongst current active members

The target has been set to get 51 of

current members to donate to the

EIFG So they have a long way to

go Some ideas to boost funding are

the sale of a superintendents life sup-

port bag These backpacks will have

essential tools and other little trin-

kets in them to be up for sale on the

EIFG website to help boost revenue

The other ideas are through the now

launched Rounds for Research pro-

gram from which many of our mem-

bersrsquo clubs have donated to If you

do not know where to look you can

reach the R4R website from the

GCSAA website or look for it on the

actual auction sit at

wwwbiddingforgoodcom

We received a update from

the Board policy Overview commit-

tee all the GCSAA field Staff repre-

sentatives another update from CEO

Rhett Evans and most

importantly from

Chava McKeel and

John OrsquoKeefe with

regards to the Public

Policy committee It is

here that Chava let us

all know the priority

issues that the GCSAA

is focusing on They

are as follows

American with Dis-

abilities Act

Fertilizers

Labor and Immigration

Pesticides

Value of Golf

Water Management

There will be some slides devoted to

what they have been fighting for at

the annual meeting and we will be

seeing what this group has been ac-

tively participating in at the National

level as well as at the State level for

our profession

So as you can see there was

a lot of information divulged for a

one and a half day meeting There

will be even more information

passed along in the upcoming

months I hope as your delegate that

you bring to me any hot button is-

sues and other items for discussion

as time moves on and I will be sure

to communicate these properly Feel

free to contact me at

jeffcouwenhovengmailcom or on

my phone at 559-250-0694

Page 14 Fore Your Information

GR I ZZ LY RAN CH H I GH L I G HT S

Pictured above hamming it up are Jeff Cou-

wenhoven with Scott Kotrc Ernesto Ibarra

and Nate Weber at right is Joe Kurung

James Slater Jason DeHerrera and Jason

Collins

The day was perfect and

friends had a time to

share and catch up on

things At right are

SNGCSA President Jeff

Couwenhoven and Host

Superintendent Mike

Baty

Pictured below are Sean Christensen

Bruce Christensen Terry Williams and

Craig Heitman

Page 15 Fore Your Information

2012 PRE S ID E NT rsquoS CUP CH AM PION S

2012 President Cup

Winner

Wes Leith

Tournament Winners

Closest to the Pin 2

Terry Smith (Above right)

Longest Drive Pat Smyth

(Above)

Most Accurate Drive

Steve Byrne (left)

(Above) Terry Williams

with Jeff Couwenhoven

(Below) Christina Bolsko Paul Watts

Page 12: September/October Issue of Fore Your Information

Verti Drain

Service

Bruce Christensen

Minden NV 89423

2754 Kayne Ave Christensen

Turf Products

Christensen Turf Products

Tel (775) 450-2761

Fax (775-267-9382

Email becgolfearthlinknet

Page 12 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 1

GCSAA mission The key points

in this segment were as follows

Serve the membership

Advance our profession

Enhance the enjoyment growth

and vitality of golf

Increase revenues and operating

efficiencies

Following Mr Evans Mr Sean

Hoolehan the chair of the Member

Standards committee gave a pres-

entation of the results of a study

that has been analyzing three

things

Determine if the original goals

of the Professional Develop

Initiative have or are being

met

Determine if GCSAA member-

ships standards have had any

unintended consequences for

the association and its members

that should be addressed mov-

ing forward

Make recommendations on a

future course of action for the

GCSAA in regards to member-

ship standards

The committee went through eve-

rything from our bylaws affiliate

chapter agreement to the member-

ship growth and classification data

available In a nutshell they found

some things that have been occur-

ring that the GCSAA did not think

were going to happen when PDI

was initiated and they range from

the loss of Class A members to sal-

ary information regarding the clas-

sifications The detail of the report

will be provided at the annual

meeting in November Their rec-

ommendations will be provided as

well at the annual meeting for our

membership

Mr Bill Maynard chair of

the membership committee went

through the upcoming affiliate

chapter agreement that we approve

here at the SNGCSA every three

years to be a affiliated chapter of

the GCSAA It was announced

following some discussion that

there will be a one year extension

of the current agreement to get

some more data from the current

affiliated chapters to better imple-

ment the new agreement in the

coming year The reason for this is

that there will be some verbiage

change and there were quite a few

chapters that felt it necessary to

need more time to correctly change

their bylaws and get a membership

vote to approve the changes for the

next agreement This will be a

topic for discussion in the coming

year I do not think it will affect

our chapter but I will research this

matter further and discuss it with

our board

Mr Randquist presented a

proposal for the GCSAA to raise

our dues $25 dollars This would

cover a CPI increase as well as

some operating expenses with rela-

tion to our life insurance provided

through the GCSAA membership

Further details will be discussed at

the annual meeting

We then got to meet the candidates

for the upcoming election that will

occur at GIS Everyone got five

minutes at the podium to give us all

a first impression

Mr Pat Finlen gave us a

vision for his Presidency high-

lighted the importance of the EIFG

and strategies for its growth and

future to help sustain its future He

touched upon the growth of the

GCSAA into Asia and other re-

gions of the world He briefly

noted that the applications for certi-

fication for the first time since PDI

are up

Our current secretarytreasurer was

not present at the meeting due to

family medical issues He will be

(Continued on page 13)

Page 13 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 2

the incoming Vice president

There are two candidates for the

Secretary Treasurer position This

will create a little drama on the floor

of the election since one of the can-

didates will not be elected Both are

current sitting Board members and

they both expressed interest to con-

tinue sitting on the board if not

elected The one that is not elected

into the officer position will need to

be nominated on the floor of the an-

nual election to be eligible for one of

the three open BOD positions

There are then five candidates for

three positions if that occurs The

candidates that are running for that

position are Peter Grass CGCS and

John J OrsquoKeefe CGCS Both offer

up a strong message and I will high-

light them at the upcoming annual

meeting

For the three BOD positions open

there are four candidates

John Fulling CGCS from Kala-

mazoo Country Club in

Kalamazoo Michigan

John Walker from Blackhorse

Golf Club in Cypress Texas

Mark Jordan CGCS from West-

field Group Country Club in

Westfield Center Ohio

Darren J Davis from Olde Flor-

ida Golf Club in Naples

Florida

Out of the four candidates

Darren Davis is the only incumbent

sitting on the current board All will

be highlighted more in the upcoming

annual meeting

On Sunday we heard more

about the Environmental Institute for

Golf or the EIFG The focus is be-

ing made on how to get more mem-

ber support to help its marketability

with industry partners Currently the

support saturation is around 19

amongst current active members

The target has been set to get 51 of

current members to donate to the

EIFG So they have a long way to

go Some ideas to boost funding are

the sale of a superintendents life sup-

port bag These backpacks will have

essential tools and other little trin-

kets in them to be up for sale on the

EIFG website to help boost revenue

The other ideas are through the now

launched Rounds for Research pro-

gram from which many of our mem-

bersrsquo clubs have donated to If you

do not know where to look you can

reach the R4R website from the

GCSAA website or look for it on the

actual auction sit at

wwwbiddingforgoodcom

We received a update from

the Board policy Overview commit-

tee all the GCSAA field Staff repre-

sentatives another update from CEO

Rhett Evans and most

importantly from

Chava McKeel and

John OrsquoKeefe with

regards to the Public

Policy committee It is

here that Chava let us

all know the priority

issues that the GCSAA

is focusing on They

are as follows

American with Dis-

abilities Act

Fertilizers

Labor and Immigration

Pesticides

Value of Golf

Water Management

There will be some slides devoted to

what they have been fighting for at

the annual meeting and we will be

seeing what this group has been ac-

tively participating in at the National

level as well as at the State level for

our profession

So as you can see there was

a lot of information divulged for a

one and a half day meeting There

will be even more information

passed along in the upcoming

months I hope as your delegate that

you bring to me any hot button is-

sues and other items for discussion

as time moves on and I will be sure

to communicate these properly Feel

free to contact me at

jeffcouwenhovengmailcom or on

my phone at 559-250-0694

Page 14 Fore Your Information

GR I ZZ LY RAN CH H I GH L I G HT S

Pictured above hamming it up are Jeff Cou-

wenhoven with Scott Kotrc Ernesto Ibarra

and Nate Weber at right is Joe Kurung

James Slater Jason DeHerrera and Jason

Collins

The day was perfect and

friends had a time to

share and catch up on

things At right are

SNGCSA President Jeff

Couwenhoven and Host

Superintendent Mike

Baty

Pictured below are Sean Christensen

Bruce Christensen Terry Williams and

Craig Heitman

Page 15 Fore Your Information

2012 PRE S ID E NT rsquoS CUP CH AM PION S

2012 President Cup

Winner

Wes Leith

Tournament Winners

Closest to the Pin 2

Terry Smith (Above right)

Longest Drive Pat Smyth

(Above)

Most Accurate Drive

Steve Byrne (left)

(Above) Terry Williams

with Jeff Couwenhoven

(Below) Christina Bolsko Paul Watts

Page 13: September/October Issue of Fore Your Information

Page 13 Fore Your Information

2012 DE LEG AT E S MEE T I NG C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 2

the incoming Vice president

There are two candidates for the

Secretary Treasurer position This

will create a little drama on the floor

of the election since one of the can-

didates will not be elected Both are

current sitting Board members and

they both expressed interest to con-

tinue sitting on the board if not

elected The one that is not elected

into the officer position will need to

be nominated on the floor of the an-

nual election to be eligible for one of

the three open BOD positions

There are then five candidates for

three positions if that occurs The

candidates that are running for that

position are Peter Grass CGCS and

John J OrsquoKeefe CGCS Both offer

up a strong message and I will high-

light them at the upcoming annual

meeting

For the three BOD positions open

there are four candidates

John Fulling CGCS from Kala-

mazoo Country Club in

Kalamazoo Michigan

John Walker from Blackhorse

Golf Club in Cypress Texas

Mark Jordan CGCS from West-

field Group Country Club in

Westfield Center Ohio

Darren J Davis from Olde Flor-

ida Golf Club in Naples

Florida

Out of the four candidates

Darren Davis is the only incumbent

sitting on the current board All will

be highlighted more in the upcoming

annual meeting

On Sunday we heard more

about the Environmental Institute for

Golf or the EIFG The focus is be-

ing made on how to get more mem-

ber support to help its marketability

with industry partners Currently the

support saturation is around 19

amongst current active members

The target has been set to get 51 of

current members to donate to the

EIFG So they have a long way to

go Some ideas to boost funding are

the sale of a superintendents life sup-

port bag These backpacks will have

essential tools and other little trin-

kets in them to be up for sale on the

EIFG website to help boost revenue

The other ideas are through the now

launched Rounds for Research pro-

gram from which many of our mem-

bersrsquo clubs have donated to If you

do not know where to look you can

reach the R4R website from the

GCSAA website or look for it on the

actual auction sit at

wwwbiddingforgoodcom

We received a update from

the Board policy Overview commit-

tee all the GCSAA field Staff repre-

sentatives another update from CEO

Rhett Evans and most

importantly from

Chava McKeel and

John OrsquoKeefe with

regards to the Public

Policy committee It is

here that Chava let us

all know the priority

issues that the GCSAA

is focusing on They

are as follows

American with Dis-

abilities Act

Fertilizers

Labor and Immigration

Pesticides

Value of Golf

Water Management

There will be some slides devoted to

what they have been fighting for at

the annual meeting and we will be

seeing what this group has been ac-

tively participating in at the National

level as well as at the State level for

our profession

So as you can see there was

a lot of information divulged for a

one and a half day meeting There

will be even more information

passed along in the upcoming

months I hope as your delegate that

you bring to me any hot button is-

sues and other items for discussion

as time moves on and I will be sure

to communicate these properly Feel

free to contact me at

jeffcouwenhovengmailcom or on

my phone at 559-250-0694

Page 14 Fore Your Information

GR I ZZ LY RAN CH H I GH L I G HT S

Pictured above hamming it up are Jeff Cou-

wenhoven with Scott Kotrc Ernesto Ibarra

and Nate Weber at right is Joe Kurung

James Slater Jason DeHerrera and Jason

Collins

The day was perfect and

friends had a time to

share and catch up on

things At right are

SNGCSA President Jeff

Couwenhoven and Host

Superintendent Mike

Baty

Pictured below are Sean Christensen

Bruce Christensen Terry Williams and

Craig Heitman

Page 15 Fore Your Information

2012 PRE S ID E NT rsquoS CUP CH AM PION S

2012 President Cup

Winner

Wes Leith

Tournament Winners

Closest to the Pin 2

Terry Smith (Above right)

Longest Drive Pat Smyth

(Above)

Most Accurate Drive

Steve Byrne (left)

(Above) Terry Williams

with Jeff Couwenhoven

(Below) Christina Bolsko Paul Watts

Page 14: September/October Issue of Fore Your Information

Page 14 Fore Your Information

GR I ZZ LY RAN CH H I GH L I G HT S

Pictured above hamming it up are Jeff Cou-

wenhoven with Scott Kotrc Ernesto Ibarra

and Nate Weber at right is Joe Kurung

James Slater Jason DeHerrera and Jason

Collins

The day was perfect and

friends had a time to

share and catch up on

things At right are

SNGCSA President Jeff

Couwenhoven and Host

Superintendent Mike

Baty

Pictured below are Sean Christensen

Bruce Christensen Terry Williams and

Craig Heitman

Page 15 Fore Your Information

2012 PRE S ID E NT rsquoS CUP CH AM PION S

2012 President Cup

Winner

Wes Leith

Tournament Winners

Closest to the Pin 2

Terry Smith (Above right)

Longest Drive Pat Smyth

(Above)

Most Accurate Drive

Steve Byrne (left)

(Above) Terry Williams

with Jeff Couwenhoven

(Below) Christina Bolsko Paul Watts

Page 15: September/October Issue of Fore Your Information

Page 15 Fore Your Information

2012 PRE S ID E NT rsquoS CUP CH AM PION S

2012 President Cup

Winner

Wes Leith

Tournament Winners

Closest to the Pin 2

Terry Smith (Above right)

Longest Drive Pat Smyth

(Above)

Most Accurate Drive

Steve Byrne (left)

(Above) Terry Williams

with Jeff Couwenhoven

(Below) Christina Bolsko Paul Watts