Behind the scenes at the 2016 Golfdom Summit

Superintendents and vendors from all across the country descended upon Orlando, Fla.’s Reunion Resort for the 2016 Golfdom Summit.

With new cutting-edge products, the latest in industry research and even some sage social media advice, the 2016 Golfdom Summit will long be remembered.

In its sixth year, the 2016 Golfdom Summit, held at Reunion Resort in Orlando, Fla., featured a first: a superintendent as keynote speaker.

Of course, maintaining the golf course at the Legends Club in Franklin, Ind., isn’t the thing for which this superintendent/general manager is most known.

Keynoter Ted Bishop treated the 2016 Golfdom Summit attendees (thanks to keynote speaker sponsor Cushman) to stories involving some of the game’s legendary figures from his time as the 38th president of the PGA of America — along with a lesson he learned the hard way.

Bishop, author of the recent book “Unfriended,” started his career in golf at a course in his hometown, Logansport, Ind., the summer before his senior year of high school. It was simply “a job,” he said, and he got paid $40 a week for 44 hours of work.

The 17-year-old Bishop at that time probably never imagined that he would eventually be working alongside golf legend Tom Watson.

Bishop will forever be linked to Watson because he was the PGA of America’s president when the multi-major winner was named 2014 U.S. Ryder Cup team captain. He called the announcement a highlight of his career and lauded Watson’s preparation for the match. For example, during the two-year lead-up to the Ryder Cup, Watson decided the team was going to have three different levels of Gore-Tex outerwear, depending on the weather. He didn’t want a repeat of the 2010 Ryder Cup, when the team’s rain suits leaked.

“He had Polo send (the rain suits) to his house, and Tom put them on, and he would literally stand in the shower for extended periods of time to make sure these things didn’t leak,” Bishop said.
On another topic, Bishop was not at all shy about the elephant in the room; that he was impeached as president of the PGA in 2014 for calling Ian Poulter a “lil girl” on social media. He noted that along with his position, he also lost his right to be an honorary president of the association and that he still pays dues and earns his recertification points but can’t vote or hold elected office. He said he probably cost himself $100,000.

“There’s a lot of lessons that you can learn from what happened to me,” Bishop said. “I know a lot of superintendents like to think that they fly under the radar. No one flies under the radar on social media.”

At the end of the night, an attendee asked Bishop, “Would you do it again?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Bishop said. “I made tremendous friends and had the privilege to travel and meet people and play courses I never would have dreamed. I wouldn’t change anything except for that 60 seconds of poor judgment on my part.”

Interesting ideas with Dr. Throssell

Each month, Golfdom Research Editor Clark Throssell, Ph.D., collects valuable university research and prepares it for publication. At the Golfdom Summit, Throssell reviews some of his favorite topics from the past year’s magazines and discusses the research and why it is relevant to superintendents.

The research results sometimes are obvious, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be explored. That’s the case Throssell made about research conducted at the University of Arkansas and led by Dan Strunk, Ph.D., on the correlation between golf ball lie, mowing height and player shot execution.
The research involved a low-handicap golfer and a high-handicap golfer hitting shots from various turf species and turf heights. They used the latest technology to track their shots, and the study found what one might expect — that the smaller the area of the ball exposed to the club face, the worse the shots.

But Throssell finds the research fascinating because the golfers lost only 0.3 of a yard on their shots between the balls being exposed 95.7 percent versus 94 percent, perhaps, he suggested, the difference between mowing every day or every other day.

“It’s really cool for me to look at these images and think of golfers who are complaining that fairways aren’t being mowed seven days a week,” Throssell said. “Now we have data saying that (with) not mowing every day, you’re losing less than a yard.”

Golfdom’s research editor also talked about fraze mowing, a newer cultivation technique that removes the turf canopy, thatch and 1/10 of an inch to 1/4 of an inch of soil. He admitted that he’s still not entirely sure about the process.

“I can’t decide if it’s the latest and greatest or if it’s just a passing fad, but probably like other things, we’ll figure out the situations where it fits and where it should be used,” he said.
Opening the conversation to Summit attendees, Throssell asked if they had experience with fraze mowing. Four superintendents raised their hands, and one superintendent said he used a turf-planing machine — the same concept as fraze mowing but more aggressive — to level his Celebration bermudagrass practice tee. It took six to eight weeks for the turf to grow back, but he plans on doing it again this summer and then repeating fraze mowing every other year. He is also looking into using it on the greens collars to lessen the damming effect that happens after years of consistent
topdressing.

Another superintendent added that because it’s much faster, he fraze mows six to seven acres of rough around the fairways instead of using a sod cutter to remove to turf.

Throssell mentioned to the attendees that he is responsible for about six pages of content in Golfdom each month and that he always is looking for interesting topic suggestions from readers.

“It’s a lot of fun for me and it keeps me current on what’s going on,” he said, “but if there’s something you would like to see in the magazine on the technical side, please let me know.”

Vendor appreciation

Sixteen companies sponsored the 2016 Golfdom Summit, including a few new up-and-comers in the business.

Ken Rost, CEO of Frost Inc., heads up one of those new companies looking to reap the benefits of being surrounded by a select group of superintendents for four days. Rost was showing superintendents a technology that turns a normal sprayer into a GPS-enabled sprayer.

“Overall, I enjoyed the format. It was a good way to talk to a bunch of guys who were there to listen,” Rost says. “As far as if it pays back, we’ll have to see yet — sometimes the sales cycle takes a while.”

Rich Behan, president of Nordic Plow, also threw his hat in to the Golfdom Summit ring to showcase his innovative core collector. He says the event was “first class all the way,” and got off to a good start with a laid-back mixer, allowing him to meet potential customers in a relaxed
environment.

“The first night I ended up sitting next to Dean Graves (Chevy Chase Club), and I didn’t know him from Adam,” Behan laughs. “But we hit it off and the next thing you know, there’s 10 of us sitting around a fire pit smoking cigars and telling stories. That set the tone for the whole event.”
Rost agreed that the Summit’s environment allowed him to have more time to get to know people who could eventually become customers.

“I think (sponsors) have a more focused opportunity with people to actually talk about things,” Rost said. “At trade shows you’re talking to one person in your booth and five others walk by that would be willing to talk, but because you’re busy it’s hard to have that conversation.”

Photo: Golfdom