Golfdom, December 2011

Off The Fringe Quotable 6 Golfdom December 2011 PHOTO BY SETH JONES School is in with Syngenta W INSTON SALEM N C For the third consecutive year Syngenta hosted a group of superintendents at Wake Forest University for the Syngenta Business Institute The three day seminar utilizes Wake Forest faculty for classes in finances negotiations and leadership This years class included 26 superintendents from around the country Bill Davidson CGCS at the Country Club of Naples Fla discusses with the Syngenta Business Institute class the advantages of keeping a maintenance blog while Fred Dickman CGCS at the Broadmoor Golf Club Colorado Springs Colo looks on The business focused curriculum appealed to the superintendents attending Its unlike what Ive seen in the past from GIS or any other classes Ive gone to Jim Alwine superintendent at Stockton Calif Golf and Country Club told Golfdom Its not bugs its not soils its finances its management and negotiating Ive taken away quite a few things I can implement at my course Stephanie Schwenke golf marketing manager for Syngenta said that hosting an event that didnt focus on any of Syngentas products was key to the uniqueness of the event We wanted to go beyond the agronomics that we believe superintendents are offered throughout the year through many different events Schwenke said in an interview that can be seen on Golfdom TV We want to enhance our relationships with superintendents and give them some different skill sets for challenges that we believe theyre being faced with every day at their courses Lets put one in every single state and one every second week Its that good of a symposium I made it a point to ask the superintendents myself what they thought of it and everything was 100 percent positive Chuck Hicks Redexim when asked how the Golfdom Summit could be improved Carolinas show sets record T he Carolinas Golf Course Superintendents Association has once again set a personal record with its conference and show The 1800 member association sold 1364 educational seminar seats during the three day conference last month beating the previous mark of 1281 set in 2007 Gross revenues of almost 600000 made for the second highest in the events nearly 50 year history Trade show exhibit space was sold out We are extremely grateful for the continued support of our members and our industry partners says the associations new president Doug Lowe CGCS from Greensboro N C Country Club We know everyone has experienced budget cuts of some kind in recent years For superintendents and vendors to continue to invest their precious resources in this event is concrete proof of the value it delivers Toro on a roll The Toro Company announced recently that it has acquired the Graden greens roller product line which includes the GSR 1200 greens roller The acquisition provides entry into a new product category and broadens Toros offering to golf customers worldwide Terms of the deal were not disclosed This acquisition fills an important product gap in our core golf business and helps further strengthen our offering in the greens care category said Darren Redetzke vice president of Toros Commercial Business Rolling greens has become an important agronomic practice for golf courses that improves the health and playability of the greens By leveraging our brand strength and extensive global distribution we are well positioned for growth in this new segment Gradens other turf maintenance product lines which include zero turn mowers verticutters and sand injectors were not associated with this acquisition