Frank Dobie Recognized by GCSAA

Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA) member Frank Dobie, superintendent and general manager at the Sharon Golf Club in Sharon Center, Ohio, has been selected to receive the 2011 GCSAA Col. John Morley Distinguished Service Award.

Frank, pictured above, gives Penn State students a tour of his maintenance facility prior to the 2009 Cutter Cup.

Dobie, a 52-year GCSAA member, will be acknowledged at the 2011 GCSAA Education Conference during Celebrate GCSAA! presented in partnership with Syngenta, Feb. 8. The conference (Feb. 7-11) will be held in conjunction with the Golf Industry Show (Feb. 9-10) in Orlando.

"Frank is most deserving of the Col. John Morley Distinguished Service Award," said GCSAA President James R. Fitzroy, CGCS. "He has made outstanding and significant contributions to the advancement of the golf course superintendent profession as well as to the game of golf. His service to our profession has been invaluable. He has the utmost respect from his peers and those at Sharon."

Dobie got his start on the maintenance crew at Homelinks Golf Club in Olmsted Falls, Ohio, in 1954. He did an internship at Bob O'Link Golf Club in Highland Park, Ill., before earning a GCSAA scholarship in 1960 to Penn State University, where he graduated first in his class with a two-year certificate in turfgrass management. Starting in 1961, Dobie served as superintendent at Sleepy Hollow Country Club in Brecksville, Ohio, then Fairlawn (Ohio) Country Club before assuming his current role as superintendent and general manager at the Sharon Golf Club. He co-supervised the construction of the golf course in 1964-65, and under his management, Sharon has made an operating profit for the past 44 consecutive years.

Dobie has mentored more than 30 students, many who have gone on to become superintendents. Several members of his staff, including the assistant superintendent, project foreman and irrigation specialist, have been at Sharon more than 40 years. Dobie conceived and implemented the first bunker liner concept in 1967. He was a pioneer in sub-surface air movement technology and he helped design the first double-row fully automatic irrigation system in northern Ohio. Dobie also established a nationwide group of superintendents in 1995 to test materials for putting green moss control and published his findings in GCSAA's magazine, Golf Course Management.

 Read the full news release at GCSAA.com.

Internship Visit #4

It is definitely long overdue and now that the students are back on campus, I am taking the heat for not posting these earlier.  In any case, here is the summary of the fourth internship visit which took me out to Denver and then back to North Carolina where I visited a total of 3 students.

Dustin Weeks @ Denver CC
(Stop #10)
Being a pathologist, I have a thing about sending students out to the arid western United States.  So when Dustin Weeks selected Denver Country Club as his internship location, I put my biases aside and took it as an opportunity to see what a turf internship in Denver would be like.  I also used it as an opportunity to catch up with a few 2-Year alums at nearby courses.  Once I arrived at Denver CC and met with golf course superintendent Doug Brooks, I quickly realized the value of simply having a great internship and put aside my love of diseases for a moment. Dustin was off to a great start and getting involved in various aspects of management that you would expect to receive at a course with a developed internship program.

Daniel Carretero @ Pinehurst No. 2
(Stop #11) 

After a lengthy flight to North Carolina and lengthy car ride to the hotel, I managed to get a few hours of sleep before my morning meeting with Daniel Carretero at the famed Pinehurst Resort. Daniel is from the Canary Islands in Spain and was interested in gaining field experience with both cool and warm-season grasses and never deviated from his initial intent of Pinehurst.  Only half way through the internship, Daniel was able to gain a variety of invaluable experiences including the restoration of the No. 2 course by Coore & Crenshaw, the oppressive heat and humidity of 2010, and the changing of management with the resignation of Paul Jett.  All of these experiences in addition to the routine maintenance practices added to the overall learning of the internship.

Dallas Cockrell @ Eagle Point
(Stop #12) 

Following my visit with Daniel and a stop to visit one of our 2-Year alums at St. James Plantation, I headed off to Wilmington, NC for a meeting with my former boss Sam Green and current student Dallas. Being from Kansas, Dallas wanted to gain some practical experience with both cool and warm season grasses.  Having worked for Sam at Congressional back in the day, I knew that this would be a good fit.  Dallas showed me around the golf course which was holding up perfectly despite the intense weather that was wreaking havoc to other bentgrass greens in the region.  Exposed to a variety of tasks from spray-hawking to mowing to course setup, Dallas had likely selected one of the best possible places to complete an internship.

Click Play for more photos from this round of internship visits.

Penn State retains the Cutter Cup.

The Cutter Cup came down to the wire as the final group of the day finished out the 18th hole. A win by Penn State on the final hole of the day was the point that resulted in a 2.5 to 2.5 halve and the retaining of the cup by the Nittany Lion team.

This year's event, hosted by Penn State alum Larry Napora, was played at Firestone Country Club near Akron, OH. Coming off a tough loss for the Penn State football team on Saturday, the students were up at 5AM for the drive to Akron. Following a tour of the maintenance facility by Mr. Napora, the group sat down for a full breakfast at the club before heading out for their matches.

The weather conditions were only surpassed by the excellent conditions of the golf course. In the end, Penn State managed to halve the match and retain the Cup. Thanks to Larry Napora and Michigan State for hosting this year's event. The overall standing for the cup are 7-6-6 with the advantage to Penn State.

Check out the photos from this year's Cutter Cup below.

Graduate Student Profile: Kyung Han

Mr. Kyung Han recently began the Master of Agronomy program at Pennsylvania State University under the direction of Dr. John Kaminski. Kyung is from Mechanicsburg, PA and has a B.S. degree in Turfgrass Science from Pennsylvania State University (Class of 2008). As an undergraduate, he completed internships at Pine Valley Golf Club and White Beeches Golf and Country Club. Kyung has received numerous scholarships including the Pennsylvania State University Alumni Scholarship, Hartman Scholarship from the College of Agricultural Science, John and Mary M. Byerly Scholarship in Agriculture and The Ambassador Scholarship by GCSAA. Following graduation, Kyung worked as the Assistant Superintendent at White Beeches Golf and Country Club.

Now back at Penn State, Mr. Han is directing his research efforts towards the influence of cultural practices on annual bluegrass populations in golf course turf. Kyung’s goal is to determine both the chemical and cultural practices necessary to maintain Poa as a desirable species or suppress Poa as a weed. His work will also evaluate how these cultural practices influence annual bluegrass populations. Specifically, Kyung is investigating the interaction among nitrogen levels, ferrous sulfate and plant growth regulators.  He is also evaluating the safety and efficacy of methiozolin, a new herbicide used to selectively suppress annual bluegrass in bentgrass putting greens. Aside from his thesis work, Kyung will be assisting Dr. Kaminski with ongoing projects such as the influence of N-source on patch disease development and the utilization of PGRs to speed turf recovery following core cultivation.

Kyung assessing Poa annua populations in his plots

Spikes staffers honored by league

State College Spikes general manager Jason Dambach, and sports turf manager Matt Neri have each been named winners of season-ending awards handed out by the New York-Penn League. Dambach has been named the winner of the 2010 Robert F. Julian Community & Baseball Service Award, while Neri has been named the league's Groundskeeper of the Year.

Dambach and Neri were selected for their respective awards based on voting from...read full story here

Original story published here.