Introducing the Professor and the Admiral

I am writing this from the beach in South Padre Island, on a family vacation. A lot has gone on since the last issue, so we’re going with the bullet column…

⦁ In this issue of Golfdom we welcome two new columnists: Jared Nemitz of the Peninsula Club, Cornelius, N.C., and Sean Tully of Meadow Club, Fairfax, Calif.

Regular readers of Golfdom will recognize Nemitz from the March cover story. He’s our Herb Graffis Businessperson of the Year. I hope you read that story and know his background as a talented grass-grower. I’m excited to see what insights he will bring to the pages of the magazine.

Meanwhile, Sean Tully might be a new face to you. I first met him in person at a Golf Industry Show a few years ago, but before that our paths crossed when he won an old issue of Golfdom autographed by Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. I called him back then to see what he thought of the magazine. Turns out that one-of-a-kind piece of golf memorabilia found the right home. Tully, whose nickname among his friends is “The Professor,” is a golf historian.

I think both superintendents will make fine additions to the Golfdom team. And don’t worry, none of the other columnists are going anywhere… we just wanted to grow the team and add some variety.

⦁ Speaking of teams, thanks to the team at Colonial CC in Fort Worth, Texas, for allowing me to crash their party during the Dean & DeLuca Invitational. Texas has been getting hammered with rain all month, and I think I brought some with me from Kansas.

Scott Ebers, CGCS, and his staff do things differently than many of the other big golf events I go to. There’s no tent for volunteers, no shuttle bus from a nearby hotel… it’s really just his crew, and a few hand-selected local guys. Despite the small crew, the course still looks great every year.

On Sunday morning, another thunderstorm rolled through. Areas of the course looked like the Brazos River. It was their fourth delay of the tournament.

And yet they got the tournament finished on Sunday afternoon, a great looking tournament, a great champion and an exciting finish.

The guys were all burned out when I joined back up with them Sunday evening. But I saw a lot of looks of satisfaction (mixed with exhaustion) and felt fortunate to be there to see it in person. You’ll see some of the photos I took in this month’s Golfdom Gallery.

⦁ May brought the 80th birthday of the National Golf Foundation. Golfdom Publisher Pat Roberts and I were invited to attend the celebration at the National Golf Foundation annual Golf Business Symposium. We were honored to take part.

The NGF asks me to put away my reporter’s notebook when I attend this event. But I can at least tell you they have lots of interesting information they shared, and the NGF will be sharing that information later this year. We’ll help spread the word, but if you’re not already a member of NGF, now is a good time to join.

⦁ May also means the annual Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association awards. Though I had to miss the meeting itself, I was thrilled with the results — Golfdom won more awards than any of our competitors.
We finally lost the “best blog” award after a five-year streak (to our sister publication, Landscape Management) but we maintained the “best columnist” award, won this year by our own Matt Neff.

The TOCA awards aren’t as big a deal as the FedEx Cup (they definitely pay less), but they are important to me. I’m proud of my team, proud to be surrounded by such talented people.