The Annual Conference was held at the Temecula Creek Inn, Temecula, CA. The event started off on Sunday evening, May 21st with a Welcome Reception and Trade Show preview. Great food and a lot of friendly conversation. After the Welcome Reception, we had a Glow Ball Closest to Pin contest, 128 yards, elevated tee, over rocks and water. There were 74 so called golfers who entered the contest, however, some chickened out, (no shows). Saw a lot of good shots and some real BAD shots! Andy Slack from Spot Water Management Co., managed to hit a low line drive to win at 8' 2", way to go Andy! 
      The Glow Ball contest was a lot of fun, thanks to the San Diego GCSA for planning this fun event!

1st Place: Superintendent Low Gross: Robert Hertzing (75)  2nd Place: Superintendent Low Gross: David Buckles (76) 3rd Place: Superintendent Low Gross: Matt Deuel (78) 4th Place: Superintendent Low Gross: Kevin Kienast (78) 5th Place: Superintendent Low Gross: Jonas Conlan (79) 1st Place: Superintendent Low Net: Arturo Fuertes (69) 2nd Place: Superintendent Low Net: Ron Nolf (69) 3rd Place: Superintendent Low Net: D. Scott Hardy (70) 4th Place: Superintendent Low Net: Chris Nolf (70) 5th Place: Superintendent Low Net: Juan Jose Maldonado (70) Long Drive: John Pina Straightest Drive: Sam Vance Closest to Pin: Paul Mayes  Closest to Pin: Andy Means  Closest to Pin: Jonas Conlan  Closest to Pin: Steven Brochu

1st Place: Affiliate Low Gross: Sam Vance (67)  2nd Place: Affiliate Low Gross: John Grund (73) 3rd Place: Affiliate Low Gross: Dave Hafen (73) 4th Place: Affiliate Low Gross: Mark Cantrell (74) 5th Place: Affiliate Low Gross: Larry Smith (74) 1st Place: Affiliate Low Net: Brad Baker (64) 2nd Place: Affiliate Low Net: Andy Means (68) 3rd Place: Affiliate Low Net: Michael Sommer (69) 4th Place: Affiliate Low Net: Ben Koehler (70) 5th Place: Affiliate Low Net: Butch Soto (71) Skins Game: Three Skins  Scott Stevens  Sam Vance  Robert Lapic

Turf Pros 
By Dave Waymire CGCS, American Golf
Meet Steven Brochu
The Vineyard Golf Course 

Born in a small town north of Boston,  Steven Brochu  knows the meaning of misfortune. 
Watching that roller go through Bill Buckners legs must have been difficult. But there is no 
misfortune in his career, in fact, quite the opposite............Steven Brochu
     Kate and Butch Brochu, Steven’s parents, still call Middleton, Massachusetts home. He has a older brother, Eric, and a younger sister, Dale. While attending Masconomet Regional High School, Steven played soccer and ran track. He also attended “a lot of Red Sox games.” His early career goal was to become a science teacher, and in 1998 he received his Bachelor of Science Degree in General Science in Education from Westfield State College. 
     During the summer of 1997, Steven worked at Middleton Golf Course. After he received his degree, he went back to school to get his Masters. During that first semester, he realized he enjoyed working outdoors and made the decision to go back into golf. He switched from a science education to horticulture. He received his associate’s degree in horticulture in May of 2001. 
Mike Sosik, the superintendent at Middleton was “one of the two greatest influences” in Stevens’s career. He helped pay for Stevens schooling and taught him the importance of being a hands on superintendent. “He was pretty quiet and easygoing, nothing like the other big influence in my career”. Obviously referring to Troy Mullane’s outgoing, and anything but quiet demeanor. 
In the fall of 2000, Steven moved over to Pinebrook Country Club in Weston. The private club gave Steven a chance to development his talents, and was obviously quite different from the public par 3 experience he had to date. He soon became the assistant and spent almost two years there before the trek out west. 
     During a two week vacation to the San Diego area, Steven caught the So Cal bug and quickly returned home to give his notice. He had not even secured a position yet, but his mind was made up. He contacted Candice Combs, CGCS during his stay, and gave her a copy of his resume. Candice circulated Stevens resume and it ended up in the hands of Mike Hathaway, CGCS. Although it wasn't the right fit at the Bridges, Mike was very good to Steven and paid his way into the PACE seminar that year. Steven sat next to Troy Mullane’s former assistant, Jeff McClintock.  “I think he picked up on my Boston accent right away, and he introduced me to Troy.” 
Steven started at StoneRidge C.C. in May of 2002. He started as a crew member, but became the assistant shortly thereafter. It was a good fit, Troy was also from Boston and an enthusiastic Red Sox fan, and they both have that funny Boston drawl. As mentioned, Steven credits Troy as the other “greatest influence” in his career. Steven said Troy is “very hands on with high expectations.” Steven had a lot to learn about the Southern California challenges with poor soils and high salts, Troy was his teacher.
     Troy, being the gentleman that he is, wanted what was best for Steven. He called me one day and said, “When I was an assistant, my superintendent was instrumental in getting me my first superintendents position, and I feel I should be doing the same for Steven.” Troy should have never made that call, because two months later I called Steven for the Vineyard position.
Troy and Steven put in many long hours together, so I contacted Troy to try to get some dirt on Steven. Troy said, “I had the privilege of working with Steven as well as being his room mate when he first moved to San Diego. I will say that he is the hardest working person I have ever met. He combines an incredible work ethic with a creative solution finding mind that will in time, I am positive, make him be recognized as one of the best superintendents in the industry. He is an honest and extremely dedicated individual and proudly I must say he has also become a great friend of mine.” So much for the dirt! 
     Steven came into a situation at The Vineyard facing some challenges. One of his biggest problems, other that agronomic, has been crew turnover. With his crew being his biggest asset, recruiting and training became even more important. With a crew of 13, Steven has now been able to address the other issues facing the property. Greens conditioning, irrigation system fine tuning, and bunker renovations have all been high priorities for Steven. 
     Paul Brown, Steven’s assistant, came over from Mt. Woodson in 2003. A San Diego native, Paul was working for a rental company when he delivered some equipment to Vince Zellefrow at Mt Woodson. Vince hired Paul as the irrigator and he moved into the assistant's position a couple years later. Paul also worked for Jake Pierce during his Woodson tour, and ran the ship by himself for many months under the guidance of Bob Dobek. Paul soon realized that golf maintenance would be his future, he applied and received the Ray Spardy Memorial Scholarship and went on to get his two-year Turf Management Certificate from Cuyamaca College. 
Paul’s parents and two brothers still call San Diego home. He lives in Ramona with his wife Brandy, who he married last August. The couple is expecting their first child in June. I understand it will be a boy, so I would like to take this opportunity to suggest a name, David. Paul enjoys fishing, hunting and motorcycles, all of which will come to an end when little David shows up.
     Steven and girlfriend Aimee, live in La Mesa. Aimee is a Zoo Keeper at the Wild Animal Park. When asked the three words to describe Steven, her reply was “comical, dedicated, and laid back.” Knowing Steven, I would agree. Another word I would add is grateful. During the interview he continually referred back to those that helped him in his career. “I really appreciate the help I got along the way, Mike, Troy and beyond that Candice Combs, CGCS and Mike Hathaway, CGCS. I was fortunate enough to have Troy call you, and then you call me.” It has all worked out well. 
Steven still enjoys running, and has completed two marathons and a triathlon. He is always anxious for the baseball season. Not sure why, we have another 86 years before the Sox win the series again. Sorry Troy and Steven, I couldn't resist. 

The California Golf Course Superintendents Association would like to salute "Mark Grund", of Mark Grund Enterprises Inc., for his devotion and dedication to the California GCSA.

For the past four years, Mark served as the Southern California Affiliate Representative on the California GCSA Board of Directors. While Mark is not that visible as a board member, his work is seen in many ways. The success of the California GCSA Annual Conference & Golf Championship and the annual California Hospitality Suite is directly attributed to Mark’s hard work and effort.

If you attended the 2006 California Annual Conference & Golf Championship, Mark's fingerprints were there. Mark posted all the signage for the Trade Show and Golf Championship Tee signs. He also is the driving force behind securing the sponsors for the California Hospitality Night.

The next time you see Mark, please give him a BIG THANK YOU!

I have forwarded all of you a link that will take you to the Air Resources Control Board's Web Site http://www.arb.ca.gov/homepage.htm. The new proposed air emissions regulations for all off-road diesel equipment in California http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/ordiesel/ordiesel.htm. Equipment dealers should take note of this and get on their emailing list. This would include all golf course
equipment over 25 hp. Current equipment that does not meet these new regulations would have to be retrofitted to comply with new emission
regulations.
 

Please forward this message and link to all equipment dealers that are not on the Network. For more info you can contact me directly. 
Please note my new email address.

GCSAA Class Renewals; 
as of April 28, 2006

GCSAA Class A members who were assigned to the initial 3 year renewal cycle in conjunction with the implementation of the Professional Development Initiative, have until June 30, 2006 to accumulate a total of 3 points, of which 1.2 must be education points, and must provide proof of possession of a pesticide license or pass GCSAA IPM exam.  In order to maintain their Class A status. 

With roughly 2 months (June 30, 2006) remaining and with 1,845 Class A members in the initial 3 year renewal cycle, we currently stand with 844 or 45.75% who have completed all the requirements. 
In addition, 627 or 33.98% appear to be on track towards meeting all the requirements. 
That leaves 374 or 20.27% who have done nothing in terms of meeting the requirements

To review a full list of education and service point opportunities, as well as information on how to record education and service points and post pesticide license information, visit the “My Member Central” tab at www.gcsaa.org or request information and affidavits by calling GCSAA’s Fax-on-Demand line at (888) 838-4419. 

For more information about maintaining your membership, contact R. Scott Woodhead, senior manager of governance and member standards, at 
(800) 472-7878, ext. 4418. 

Member price: $30

Education points: 0.2

Web Page Basics:                                        5:00:00 PM  06/14/06 
What's the Buzz About Your Golf Course: 2:00:00 PM  06/28/06 

For Details; visit the GCSAA Web Address: http://www.gcsaa.org/education/webcast/webcast.aspx
Or call Kyle Kreighbaum 800-472-7878 x5167

The club, set to host the U.S. Open on its South Course in 2008, had been directed by the United States Golf Association and the PGA Tour to make several changes to the course, which is nestled atop the cliffs along the Southern California coastline in La Jolla, Calif.

With time at a premium and a completion date nearing, the club and its builder, Landscapes Unlimited, encountered a unique problem, however.

It was a win-win-win situation, West Coast Turf's John Marman said of the decision to strip sod from Lake San Marcos Country Club and install it on Torrey Pines' South Course. 

First, a little history on the project. Lincoln, Neb.-based Landscapes Unlimited was awarded a contract to convert two relatively short par-5 holes by today's standards into lengthy par 4s as well as the reconstruction of several fairway bunkers. The PGA Tour also requested that the bermudagrass on the golf course be replaced with kikuyugrass in an effort to make the already-predominant kikuyugrass golf course turf type consistent throughout the course. With the remodeling nearing completion and the golf course contractor needing sod, an unexpected problem arose.

The sod, which was to be custom grown, couldn't be harvested on time because of its lack of growth and establishment during a colder than normal winter. There was a solution to the problem, however, and it involved another golf course in San Diego, as well as Landscapes Unlimited and West Coast Turf.

With golfers playing off bare soil in anticipation of the sod, a decision was made to strip the sod from the nearby Lake San Marcos Country Club fairways. Lake San Marcos was doing the opposite of Torrey Pines. The course's officials wanted to take out the kikuyugrass fairways and replace them with hybrid bermudagrass. Kikuyugrass will perform better along the coast as opposed to slightly inland areas such as Lake San Marcos. West Coast Turf personnel performed the job to help Landscapes Unlimited finish the project.

"I guess you could say it was a win-win-win situation for all parties involved," said West Coast Turf spokesperson John Marman. "Landscapes Unlimited was thrilled to finish the job on time, Torrey Pines now has wall-to-wall kikuyugrass on the South Course, and Lake San Marcos received the hybrid bermudagrass fairways it desired without having to pay costly disposal fees." 

Additional information about Torrey Pines preparing for the 2008 US Open Championship.

Green will be 100% Poa.
Fairways renovated to 100 % Kikuyugrass.
Approaches: Hybrid bermuda.
Green collars: Kikuyugrass.
Torrey Pines Roughs: experimenting at 4", 5" and 6" inch Kikuyugrass roughs.
New Tees have been contracted, for a course length of 7,607 yards. US Open to be played at 7,500 yards.
Trees have been trimmed, drainage ditch in front of Par 3, # 11, has been piped and grassed.

To the best of our knowledge: Candice Combs, CGCS will be the first women to host a US Open Championship.

Article Source:
Article reprint from Golfdom Insider
and additional comments by Bob Tillema, CGCS

On May 12, we had the chance to perform a trial with Candice Combs at Torrey Pines GC with Drs. Larry Stowell and Wendy Gelernter from PACE Consulting. Fungicide applications were made on May 12 and evaluated on May 19 and May 24, here are the results from the May 24 evaluation. 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

** averages followed by the same letter are the same (p < 0.05, Duncan-Waller k-ratio test) 
*** based on comparisons between initial and final ratings amongst plots. 

Candice had treated the greens with Banner MAXX about a week prior to the start of the trial and the first application didn't stop the disease entirely. Initially, the plots were all about the same with regard to disease development, but after one curative application (applied at 2 gal/ 1000 sq. ft with TeeJet 8002 flat fan nozzles), it seemed that all but Clearys 3336 had some effect in reducing the disease. Compass had the least effect, but was statistically equivalent to the remaining treatments. Numerically, Banner MAXX, Medallion, Endorse, Heritage and ProStar were the strongest based on the May 25 rating. 

There was some variation in performance – ProStar was strong on May 24., but weaker on May 19; the same was true for Insignia to a lesser extent. 26GT appeared to have good activity on May 19, but less so on May 24. 

Isolations from the green on May 12 indicated that the primary pathogen species was Waitea circinata var circinata, but there was some Rhizoctonia zeae present. It takes about 14-21 days to tell them apart 100%, and we were surprised to see some R. zeae, but I don't think it changes the trial too much in this case. 

The jury is still out as far as the best treatment. With regard to Banner MAXX, maybe more than one treatment is needed for effective control. 

Just this week, two courses (Newport Coast, Palos Verdes) said they got good control with ProStar and one didn't (Santa Barbara). One location in Napa treated with Heritage and the fungus was still active. An additional location (Tustin) indicated that 4 oz of Endorse also cleaned up the disease. We are in the process of confirming which species affected these locations. 

Additional details from the trial can be found at the PACE web site, including additional data from a rating on May 19. www.paceturf.org – the info is located in the photo gallery: http://www.paceturf.org/photo/showphoto.php/photo/792/sort/1/cat/1/page/1 

The bottom line: 
(1) Banner MAXX, Medallion, Endorse, and Heritage appear to have the best activity in our trial on both rating dates. ProStar looked very good on the second rating date and 26GT and Insignia activity were more variable overall. 
(2) There may be a mix of Rhizoctonia species affecting greens, possibly explaining variations in fungicide activity 
(3) There is some variation in fungicide effectiveness at individual locations – could be possible case by case resistance development or something else like nozzle selection/spray pressure/water volume. 

It's critical that we get more isolates from more locations as well as feedback from folks as far as what is and what is not working --- it's still a mystery we are trying to figure out! We'll have some lab tests done soon to try to help sort this out. 

Waitea vs Rhizoctonia 
Since starting to talk about Waitea, I have gotten a lot of questions since I seem to use the term Waitea and Rhizoctonia interchangeably. It's a little confusing, but here's the clarification. 

There are four diseases of turf caused by Rhizoctonia type fungi on turf (one disease, Sheath and Leaf Spot is associated with either of two fungi), these are listed below: 
 

* name for disease on bentgrass proposed to the Japanese society of Phytopathology 
** preliminary name for disease on annual bluegrass not yet proposed to any society 
*** not formally assigned; no Anamorphic Name has been formally approved 

Fungi get two names – a Telemorphic Name describing the sexual form of the fungus, which is often rare in nature and an Anamorphic Name for the asexual state. For example, the Yellow Patch pathogen can be called Ceratobasidium cereale or Rhizoctonia cerealis; but since we see the asexual form nearly 100% of the time, most pathologists just say Rhizoctonia cerealis. 

For The fungi causing Sheath and Leaf Spot/Brown Ring Patch/Waitea Patch – it's a little more complex. Morphologically, they all look about the same thus the Teleomorph name was assigned as Waitea circinata. Since there were small differences in biology between these – they divided this species into three varieties: oryzae, zeae and circinata. The old names for two of these groups were Rhizoctonia zeae and Rhizoctaonia oryzae, which have been renamed Rhizoctonia circinata var zeae and Rhizoctonia circinata var oryzae, respectively. 

At the time, when we figured out that we had a new pathogen – there was no accepted “Rhizoctonia” name for it, so we had to use the assigned Teleomorphic Name, Waitea circinata var circinata and also called the disease “Waitea Patch” since it was not 100% clear if Rhizoctonia circinata var zeae and Rhizoctonia circinata var oryzae were involved. 

To boil it down to the syrup: 
(1) Waitea circinata var circinata is a Rhizoctonia-disease, that no one had assigned a Rhizoctonia-species name to. 
(2) “Brown Ring Patch” is the Japanese name for Waitea circinata var circinata on bentgrass; we are using “Waitea Patch” for the disease in the U.S. on annual bluegrass until we know for sure its 100% the same and to separate it from other Rhizoctonia diseases. 
(3) If you thought pathologists were bad, taxonomists (the ones who name fungi and other things) are ten times worse. 

Candice Combs at Torrey Pines GC with Drs. Larry Stowell and Wendy Gelernter from PACE Consulting.
 
 

Turf is at the greatest risk from salinity damage during hot and dry periods when salts from irrigation water accumulate in the soil and are not leached out by rainfall. If soil salts are a concern at your location, you should be monitoring salinity on a regular basis. 
If soil salts reach threatening levels for your turf type, you will need to schedule a leaching event. But you need to know how much water is needed to do the trick (depressing statistic: it's usually much more water than anyone imagines). 
The general rule of thumb is this: to cut soil salinity values in half, you will need to apply six inches of water. For a 5,000 sq. ft green, this translates into roughly 20,000 gallons of water.

Example: If your irrigation system precipitation rate is 0.8 inches/hour, you will need to irrigate for 7.5 hours (6 inches/0.8 inches = 7.5) to reduce soil salinity by 50%. To reduce salinity by 25%, you will only need to irrigate for 3.75 hours (7.5/2). The trick is, all of that water needs to go directly into the soil -- water that sheets off the surface doesn't do you any good. For this reason, a cycle/soak approach may be necessary if your soil infiltration rates are slower than your irrigation precipitation rates (this is the case for most greens). The cycle/soak approach avoids run-off by periodically interrupting the application of water, thus allowing water to infiltrate into the soil before the next glug is applied. .......... Details

PACE Turfgrass Research Institute - www.paceturf.org

For more information: 
Craig Donahue – 909-844-2328 or Chuck Wagner – 949-294-7393. 
Email: info@aqua-phyd.com
www.aqua-phyd.com