Tee Off News July August 2016
Ridge Creek Dinuba Golf Club Annual Association Meeting September 12, 2016
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TEE-OFF News
President’s Message By Steven Showers We have made it through the hottest part of the summer and are in August now, although as I write this, the high in Fresno is 106 again. Well, we are at least nearing the end of summer according to the calendar and aerification will be here before you know it for a number of us. I would like to thank all of the GCSACC members as well as the Steven Showers members from the other chapters Airways Golf Course who were able to make the Tri 2016 GCSACC President Chapter meeting earlier this month. We had some great education and fine weather for golf, thanks to Gerardo Gonzalez for hosting the meeting. We have our election meeting coming up next month at Ridge Creek in Dinuba and I would like to see a great turnout for the meeting and education. Please make every effort to attend if at all possible. On October 17th the Lowell Stone Charity Tournament will be hosted by Lowell Stone himself at Madera Country Club. Please plan on coming to this great event and be sure to bring a friend. This is one of our rare tournaments that we encourage participation from the general public, so if you could, please publicize the event at your course in any way possible. Maybe post flyers or mention it in your communication to your members, the more participants we have the more money we are able to contribute to our charities. Also if you are able to donate prizes, rounds of golf, golf clubs or other merchandise, it will help us drum up donations for our raffle. Every little bit helps!
It’s also not too early to plan for the upcoming Christmas Party on December 3 at Windows on the Water in Morro Bay. The party coincides with the annual boat parade in the bay. If you have not attended this party, please try and make it, it’s a great time and there are many hotels within walking distance of the event. These last three events of the year are a great opportunity for you to take advantage of the networking and to be honest simply fun events that are available to you as a member of the association. I look forward to seeing you soon! The Olympic golf tournament has concluded with a great late charge from American Matt Kuchar to rally for the bronze metal. I’m hopeful that the event will help grow the game of golf internationally, but only time will tell. When it comes to growing the game we have two members who have dedicated a lot of time and effort to encourage new golfers on a local level. Tom Elliot has turned his short course at Monarch Dunes into a premier learning facility and Josh Heptig spent a number of long hot days at the State Fair in Paso Robles manning a putting green to help introduce young people to the game of golf. Thank you both for your efforts! At Airways we have experienced an interesting new way to get people out to the golf course. The golf course and nearby municipal swimming pool are Pokemon go stops, now I’m not sure what that means, but I have seen a number of people wandering around the course in the early morning hours and late afternoons looking at their cell phones and staring into space. We keep a close eye on these individuals but for the most part there haven’t been any real issues with them. I’m not sure if it will turn any of these predominantly young people into golfers but at least they are able to see the course rather than simply driving by it. Have a great rest of the year and I hope to see you soon.
S*E*E*D
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9180 San Fernando Rd. P. O. Box 1579 Sun Valley, California 91353 Office (800) 621-0315
www.stoverseed.com
TEE-OFF News
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Save The Dates Annual Election Meeting & Tournament September 12, 2016 Ridge Creek Golf Course Hosted by Rob Lomeli
Annual Charity Event Madera Golf & C.C. October 17, 2016 Host Superintendent Lowell Stone
Annual Holiday Party December 3, 2016 Windows on the Water Morro Bay
2017 Winter Symposium January 2017 Be the First to Step Up and lets get our calendar full
Turf Pro 2016 Professional Update Series
Morro Bay Golf Course September 7, 2016 November 9, 2016 Copper River Country Club September 8, 2016 November 10, 2016 For Information Call 559-269-7342
TEE-OFF News
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Around the Green by Mike Cline Mike Cline
Dragon Fly Golf Club in Fresno was stuck by fire on July 2nd. Welders working on a fence set fire to the hillside adjacent to the course. Superintendent Kevin Wiles, lead a team of 10-15 golf course personnel to fight the fire until the local fire department could arrive. The fire which started at 8:00 am was not contained until well have 6:00 PM. During that time in addition to pulling water hoses course personnel evacuated the entire golf course via a different route and also helped save a fire truck that had become
stuck in the path of the wild fire. The fire consumed over 30 acres and threatened to jump fire lines several times which could have been devastating to the club house and cart barn areas. The Roddy Ranch Golf Course in Antioch closed this month. It was one of the newest courses in the Bay Area. It was another blow to the California Golf Industry. In the last 18 months Northern California has seen Sunol Valley near Sunol, Grayson Woods in Pleasant Hill, Springtown in Livermore and Pine Meadow in Martinez close and The Shadow Lakes course, less than a mile east of Roddy Ranch, is operating a partial
schedule, mostly weekends. Availability and cost of water was cited as a key factor in every case. The California GCSA State Chapter recently held their annual elections. We are well represented on that board with Glenn Matthews, CGCS taking the Secretary Treasurer position for this year. Glenn will also represents us at the delegates meeting coming up this October in Lawrence. The committee on foreign investment in the US has approved the purchase of Syngenta by ChemChina. Its looks like this major worldwide accuesition is going to happen.
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2016 Annual Meeting & Election The beautiful Ridge Creek Golf Course will host the 2016 Annual Meeting and Election on Sept, 12, 2016. This year our Officers all felt that the association needed some additional continuity and all have agreed to stay on in their present positions for another year. Therefore, Steven Showers will seek election as president of our association, Andy Cordova will seek the VP slot and Glenn Matthews, CGCS will seek the Secretary/Treasurer Position. In addition to that we have two new members that have volunteered their services to our membership and are seeking the two open board positions. Eric Lewellen, Superintendent at San Joaquin C.C. in Fresno is seeking a position as a director. Eric has been a member of our association since early 2015 when he
took the position at San Joaquin C.C. Also, Matt Nowlen, Superintendent at Laguna Lake G.C. in Paso Robles will be joining the board. Matt joined our chapter in early 2016 and is looking forward to working as your new director. These two members will be replacing Craig Johnson, Belmont C.C. and Jose Alvarez, Fort Washington that have decided to step down. We greatly appreciate the efforts and work that Craig and Jose have done during the two years they have been on the board. In the affiliate position, Pete Bowman, Helena will be stepping down and we have Erik Smith from Target that has volunteered to serve in the Affiliate Representative position. Once again, we thank Pete for his efforts these last few
years and want him to know how much we appreciate his efforts and input throughout his term. You should have all received your absentee ballots by email. If you can not attend the Annual Meeting on September 12th be sure to get that ballot in. We do hope, however, that you can attend as Host Superintendent Rob Lomelli will have his course in excellent condition as always. Rob has been a gracious host on numerous occasions and we need for you to come out and show your support not only to the association but to Rob. We have an excellent lineup for education and we are sure you will find it a very informative and fun day. So come to Dinuba, meet your new board members, and have an informative and fun day.
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TEE-OFF News
Newsletter Title
From the Field Jeff Jensen, GCSAA Field Staff, Southwest Region Applications for the GCSAA and Golf Digest Environmental Leaders in Golf Awards open Aug. 1. Presented in partnership with Syngenta and Rain Bird, the awards recognize Jeff Jensen superintendents and golf courses around the world for their commitment to environmental stewardship. Categories for this year’s awards include Overall Winner, National Award Winners (Private, Public and Resort), Chapter Awards (one award winner from each affiliated chapter represented), International Award and Merit Awards (applicants equal to or greater than the average score who were not selected for national or chapter awards). Applications are reviewed by an independent panel of judges consisting of highly engaged professionals in the golf course industry. Appli-
cations are evaluated in categories including water conservation, water quality, integrated pest management, energy conservation, pollution prevention, waste management, wildlife habitat, communication/outreach and leadership. Award winners receive recognition in Golf Digest and GCSAA publications, recognition at the 2017 Golf Industry Show and personalized trophies. More importantly, winning superintendents and facilities garner national, regional and local publicity while improving the golf industries image. The 2014 and 2015 Overall Winners represented California (Gary Ingram, Metropolitan Golf Links and Mark Condos, Las Positas Golf Club) and the state garnered seven award winners in 2015. The deadline for applying is Sept. 30 with online applications available at www. gcsaa.org/ELGA. Winners will be announced in late November. In other news, GCSAA recently an-
nounced the sites for the 2017 GCSAA Golf Championships in Orlando, Fla. Presented by Toro, the members-only event features four competitions over three days: National Championship, Golf Classic, Four-Ball and Shamble. Celebration Golf Club, Orange County National, Ritz-Carlton Grande Lakes and Shingle Creek Golf Resort will serve as hosts for the championships that will be contested Feb. 4-6. The Ritz-Carlton will also serve as the host hotel. More information including pricing and registration will be available in the coming months. Thank you for your continued support of GCSAA. Please contact me if I can be of assistance and follow me on Twitter @GCSAA_SW for daily golf industry updates. Enjoy the remainder of summer and I will see you on the links!
2016 GCSACC BOARD OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT STEVEN SHOWERS AIRWAYS G. C. VICE PRESIDENT ANDY CORDOVA CYPRESS RIDGE G.C. .JOSE ALVAREZ FORT WASHINGTON C.C.
SECRETARY/TREASURER GLENN MATTHEWS, CGCS VISALIA COUNTRY CLUB
PAST PRESIDENT TENNESSEE MCBROOM SANDPIPER GOLF CLUB /RANCHO SAN CRAIG JOHNSON BELMONT C.C. PETE BOWMAN HELENA CHEMICAL
PAUL BARR SAN LUIS OBISPO C.C..
ALBERT NUNES MORRO BAY GOLF COURSE
ZACK MORAN WATER QUALITY CONSULTANTS
Official Publication of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of Central California. The purpose of this publication is information and education for the membership. Published bi-monthly by GCSACC, 5322 N. Leonard Clovis, CA 93619 Phone (559) 298-4853 Fax (559) 298-6957 Email gcsacc@aol.com Newsletter Chairman & Newsletter Editor Zachary Moran Executive Directors Irene Cline & Kimberly Milne
Volume 1, TEE-OFF N ews
Issue 1
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2016 Tri Chapter Meeting Highlights It was a beautiful day at RidgeMark Golf Club. The 2016 Tri Chapter Meeting hosted by Gerardo Martinez, pictured at right. The team competition was won by the Central Califonria Chapter, Pictured at left was the winning team members with the best scores for our chapter, Andy Cordova, Cypress Ridge, Josh Heptig, County of SLO, Steven Spetifore, Cal Poly, and Michael Scott, CGCS, Blacklake G.C. Thank guys for making us proud!! At left is Glenn Matthews, CGCS with Steve Byrne, TMT Ent.
Below Paul Barr and Scott Furtak
Picutred above are course game winners, Jessie Pomipic, Brown Sand, Jeff Jensne GCSAA and Steven Spetefore
At right, Andy Cordova and Mike Scott