Other Industry News

The majority, about three-quarters as of this writing, of respondents to the current GNN Poll agree that induction into a golf hall of fame should be based on accomplishments and not some arbitrary age or point in somebody’s career that makes them eligible for such an honour. Some view a hall of fame induction as [...]

Jisoo Keel of Coquitlam, B.C., carded a final round even-par 72 to capture the season-opening event on the 2012 CN Canadian Women’s Tour at Richmond Country Club in Richmond, B.C., on Wednesday. Keel had three birdies on her last five holes of the day, which concluded with a 20-foot birdie putt on No. 18 to [...]

Golf Canada and the Toronto Organizing Committee for the 2015 Pan American Games and Parapan American Games have issued a Request for Proposal from potential host venues for the golf competition at the Pan American Games. The deadline for clubs to submit a proposal is June 12, 2012. The Pan Am golf competition will include [...]

Nick Price and Mark O’Meara will make their first appearances at next month’s Montreal Championship. “The presence of these two decorated golfers confirms that the 2012 Montreal Championship will have its strongest starting field to date,” said tournament director David Skitt. “Furthermore, adding two players that have yet to appear at the Montreal Championship is [...]

Warren Crosbie chats about his 33 years at Bayview Golf and Country Club in Thornhill, Ont., his time as president of the PGA of Canada, gardening, teaching and some of the other activities he’s been caught up in after announcing his retirement. To listen, click here. [Audio clip: view full post to listen]  

Joy Trotter of Chino Hills, Calif., Tara Goedeken of Dodge City, Ks., and Allison Hanna of Clackamas, Ore. carded opening round 70s to sit in a three-way tie for first at the CN Canadian Women’s Tour season-opening event at Richmond Country Club in Richmond, B.C. “I was able to hit the fairways. That’s important out [...]

Jisoo Keel of Coquitlam, B.C., a member of Team Canada, carded a final round even-par 72 to capture the season-opening event on the 2012 CN Canadian Women’s Tour at Richmond Country Club in Richmond, B.C.

WinField, one of the nation’s largest distributors of professional products for turf, ornamental, pest control, aquatics and vegetation management, announced today it has completed the acquisition of the assets of Minnesota-based Precision Turf & Chemical. The combination of WinField’s integrated system of partners, services and solutions, and Precision Turf’s team of experts with 30 years of experience, will come together to give customers in the Upper Midwest access to a broader range of products and services. 

WinField has 80 service centers across the country and close to 100 sales representatives in golf course management, lawn and sports turf management, pest control, aquatics and vegetative management markets.

“We are excited to strengthen our presence in the Midwest by adding experienced and knowledgeable experts with localized expertise to our team,” said Kanchan Chavan, Director, Professional Products Marketing, WinField. “This acquisition allows WinField to bring the same broad range of products, insights and expertise used at the country’s most prestigious golf courses, sporting venues and commercial properties to the Midwest customers.”

Winfield Solutions, LLC, a Land O’Lakes, Inc. company, offers top-performing professional products. With unmatched solutions, service and insights as core company values, Winfield Solutions matches leading products with expertise to help businesses achieve the highest level of success.

The WinField brand includes adjuvants, dyes and wetting agents, fertilizers, fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, micronutrients, turf seed and pest control products. Backed with unrivaled technical services and knowledge, WinField delivers outstanding solutions and value for the professional products industry.


 

 

Spectrum Technologies announced that their redesigned website was recently selected as a Bronze Medal Winner in the category of B2B from Horizon Interactive Awards. American Eagle, Spectrum Technologies’ web designer, entered the Spectrum website into the competition.
 
The Horizon Interactive Awards (https://www.horizoninteractiveawards.com) is a prestigious international competition recognizing outstanding achievement among interactive media producers from all over the world. Entries were judged by an international, volunteer panel of industry professionals with diverse backgrounds and various roles within the interactive media industry. A panel of end-users also evaluated entries making the 2011 results the most comprehensive and well-rounded process of any interactive media competition.
 
“In business you need to always think of ways to better serve your customers… and our website is a significant way and tool for doing this,” states Mike Thurow, President & CEO, Spectrum Technologies, Inc.  “We realize the website is a large part of our brand messaging and our intent has always been that it should be a resource to educate existing and prospective customers on our innovative product offerings and brands. As a live mechanism, we are constantly looking for creative ways to improve our website that ultimately result in increased customer satisfaction. We are grateful to be selected to receive the bronze award,” states Thurow.
 

 
 

Nike Golf has gone to the dark side with the introduction of its Method Midnight putter, which is available in new milled head shapes with a dark chrome finish. Three models of the Method Midnight are available, with all three using polymetal face groove technology to generate forward roll almost immediately after impact for accuracy [...]

Joy Trotter of Chino Hills, Calif., Tara Goedeken of Dodge City, Kansas and Allison Hanna of Clackamas, Ore. carded opening round scores of 2-under 70 to sit atop the leaderboard in a three-way tie for first at the CN Canadian Women’s Tour season-opening event at Richmond Country Club in Richmond, B.C.

Howard Fertilizer and Chemical Company Inc. announces continued expansion throughout its Southeast footprint with the addition of three veteran sales team members. With more than 100 years' combined experience in golf, lawn care and sports turf, Howard's additional new sales team members are growing the company's market share in the Southeast, including North Carolina, South Carolina and portions of Virginia and Tennessee.
 
Mike Gregory, with 38 years of green industry experience, will service the eastern portion of the Carolinas. Gregory's focus will be on golf and lawn care markets.
 
Kenny Gilmore, a 21-year veteran, will serve the central portion of the Carolinas and southern Virginia. Gilmore's efforts will be centered on the golf, lawn care and sports turf markets.
 
Aubrey Hines, with more than 22 years in distribution, will service the western portion of the Carolinas and eastern Tennessee, concentrating on the golf and lawn care markets.
 
In addition to three new sales team members, two of our top-performing sales representatives will expand their current responsibilities into the Carolinas.
 
Jay Fountain, with 22 years' experience, will continue his capacity in the regional account representative role specific to lawn care and sports turf markets.
 
Cris Cooke, with 20 years of industry experience, will expand her current sales territory with the company and serve as the Southeast Key Account Representative.

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We opened on April 25 and with the nice spring weather that we had this year, we opened the range a week earlier, where some of the members were looking at us strangely, as if to say, `Why aren’t you open now?’ If we can take two or three days on the front end to [...]

The new Tour Edge Bazooka HT Max-D driver is designed to maximize clubhead speed with its sloped crown and aerodynamic shape to reduce drag and improve air flow for faster swing speed and better rebound off the face. The 460 c.c. titanium head has a deep face, while two internal weight cavities in the rear [...]

A mega-merger has taken place in golf retail with news that Golf Town has signed a definitive merger agreement to acquire American-based Golfsmith. To read more, click here and here. On another link, Tim Campbell of the Winnipeg Free Press discusses growing concern over the fate of that city’s golf courses. You can read about [...]

Golf course superintendents, lawn and landscape professionals and other turf managers rely on the most current product, technical, business and agronomic information to effectively manage their operations.
 
Syngenta has redesigned its GreenCast online product information and support website.  These changes will help turf professionals stay up-to-date on current trends and agronomic developments, while deepening their understanding of the breadth of Syngenta’s product portfolio and technical expertise.
 
Located at www.greencastonline.com, GreenCast features:
 

• •Quick access to agronomic tools
• •Product portfolio including labels, and MSDS
• •Multi-media resources
• •Assurance programs
• •Agronomic and news updates
• •Weather tools
• •TechNotes by Karl Danneberger
• •On-line learning modules
• •Industry headlines 

 
“Syngenta is constantly developing innovative products and solutions to help our customers manage their businesses and do their jobs better and more efficiently,” said Shawn Potter, head of marketing for Syngenta Turf & Landscape. “The new GreenCast design is another example of our commitment to turf professionals everywhere. It is packed with information our customers can use to make better business decisions and in a format that allows them to connect with our brand, products and people in a unique online experience.”
 

Now available on GCI's Superintendent Radio Network: Dr. Gracie Barrett and Richard Page of Laverstoke Park discuss how building a solid living soil foundation creates a stronger stand of turf. This interview comes as a guest clip from the Rootzone Podcast, Edition 7. Rootzone Podcast can be downloaded at www.yapaudio.co.uk.

 

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Several warm periods across the contiguous U.S. during April brought the national average temperature to 55°F, 3.6°F above average, marking the third warmest April on record. These temperatures, when added with the first quarter and previous 11 months, calculate to the warmest year-to-date and 12-month periods since recordkeeping began in 1895.

The 12-month period of May 2011-April 2012 has a nationally-averaged temperature 2.8°F above the 1901-2000 long-term average, while the January-April 2012 months were 45.4°F, 5.4°F above the long-term average.

On the heels of the warmest March for the U.S., warmer and drier than average temperatures continued for much of the nation with some states in the Ohio Valley having a small, but still above average, dip in temperatures.

U.S. climate highlights — April

• Warmer-than-average temperatures were present for a large portion of the nation during April with nine states in the Central and Northeast regions having April temperatures ranking among their ten warmest. Above-average temperatures were also present for the Southeast, Upper Midwest and much of the West.
• April 2012 Statewide Temperature (top) and Precipitation (bottom) ranks
• Eight states — Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia — had average April temperatures cooler than their March temperatures. However, these temperatures were still above the long-term average for the month.
• Statewide precipitation totals were mixed during April, with wetter than average conditions across the West Coast and Northern and Central Plains. Drier than average conditions were present in Texas and along the Gulf Coast, stretching northward toward the Great Lakes. The national precipitation average was 2.23 inches, 0.20 inch below average.
• According to the Rutgers Global Snow Lab, the April snow cover extent across the contiguous United States was the third smallest on record, despite the late season Nor'easter which impacted the Northeast with snow near the end of April.
• According to NOAA's Storm Prediction Center, there were 228 preliminary tornado reports during April, above the 1991-2010 average for the month. The majority of the tornadoes occurred during an April 14th outbreak across the Central Plains. Tornado activity during April 2012 was in stark contrast to April 2011, when over 750 tornadoes tore across the Southeast, causing significant damage and loss of life.

U.S. climate highlights — Year-to-date

• January-April was the warmest such period on record for the contiguous United States, with an average temperature of 45.4°F, 5.4°F above the long-term average. Twenty-six states, all east of the Rockies, were record warm for the four-month period and an additional 17 states had temperatures for the period among their ten warmest.
• The first four months of 2012 were drier than average for the contiguous United States as a whole, with some regional variability. The eastern third of the nation was drier than average, with Maryland and Delaware record dry, and an additional six states had precipitation totals ranking among the ten driest. Drier than average conditions were also present for much of the Interior West.
• Wetter than average conditions occurred across the central regions of the country and the Pacific Northwest, where above average precipitation contributed to higher than normal mountain snowpack at the end of the snow season. The amount of snowpack in the springtime is important in determining water supply for the region for the upcoming summer period.
• According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, as of May 1st, 38.2 percent of the contiguous United States was experiencing drought conditions, an increase from the 31.9 percent at the beginning of 2012. Drought worsened across the Northeast, Southeast, and the Interior West while beneficial precipitation significantly improved drought conditions across the Southern Plains and western Gulf of Mexico.
• The U.S. Climate Extremes Index (USCEI), an index that tracks the highest and lowest 10 percent of extremes in temperature, precipitation, drought and tropical cyclones across the contiguous U.S., was a record 42 percent during the January-April period, over twice the average value. Extremes in warm daytime temperatures (82 percent) and warm nighttime temperatures (68 percent) covered a large area of the nation, contributing to the record high value.

12-month period (May 2011 - April 2012)

The 12 month period beginning May 2011 through April 2012, which includes several warm episodes for the country — second hottest summer, fourth warmest winter, and warmest March — was the warmest consecutive May-April year-long period for the contiguous United States. Twenty-two states were record warm for the 12-month period and an additional 19 states were top ten warm. The 12-month running average temperature for the contiguous U.S. was 55.7°F, 2.8°F above the 20th century average.
 

I may be the lone wolf who isn’t howling about Phil Mickelson at the age of 41 being inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame a week ago in St. Augustine, Fla. The ones who were making their voices known in protest were really just rehashing an argument that went on a few years [...]