Behind The Turf

Conferences- there are plenty to choose from and a lot of turf managers attend them however there are many that don’t I am a big believer in them small or large. These are my thoughts and I hope it gives you some guidance in looking to attend a few in the coming months.

Rutgers University is world renowned turf school and is a leader when it comes to turf diseases. The work Bruce and Jim have done on anthracnose is amazing and has given turf managers the tools to best control this disease. Please enjoy.

In this episode I speak to Steve Smith an ex superintendent I’ve known for 15 years running his own premium maintenance turf business. However, I am talking to him about his podcast, “The Golfing Greenkeeper.” The podcast has 2 themes to it. The first is Steve gives updates on the Australian golfing world and works happening on golf courses. As well as reporting on new projects being developed in Australia. The other theme is he speaks to current superintendents on their career and life as a greenkeeper. I have been an avid listener and wanted our friends to know more about the podcast and Steve. We speak about his time as a super and what got him into doing the podcast. Please have a listen to this episode.In this episode I speak to Steve Smith an ex superintendent I’ve known for 15 years running his own premium maintenance turf business. However, I am talking to him about his podcast, “The Golfing Greenkeeper.” The podcast has 2 themes to it. The first is Steve gives updates on the Australian golfing world and works happening on golf courses. As well as reporting on new projects being developed in Australia. The other theme is he speaks to current superintendents on their career and life as a greenkeeper. I have been an avid listener and wanted our friends to know more about the podcast and Steve. We speak about his time as a super and what got him into doing the podcast. Please have a listen to this episode.

I had the pleasure of a chat with 3 very smart people today. This episode introduced a graduate student of Dr Jim Brosnans, Devon Carroll who is working on a her PHD. We firstly speak about her research about women in turf and the findings she has found on why and why not women work in the turf industry. We then dive into her latest research on poa overseen by Jim Brosnan on poa lifecycle. UT is at the forefront of poa research in turf. John Neylan joined me again and contributed nicely to the discussion as poa is his speciality and I appreciate him taking his time to be a part of it.

In todays episode I have 2 guests who I have been wanting to get onto the show. John Neylan is very well known in Australia and worldwide with his research and agronomy services. John has been lead the AGCSA (now ASTMA) for a number of years and also worked independently. He is now with SportEng in developing and designing sportsturf facilities. He also continues to conduct research in turf and lately has been doing work got the VGCSA (Victorian Golf Course Superintendents). My other guest is Shane Greenhill who is the superintendent of Sorrento golf club located on the southern part of the Mornington Peninsula. Shane is also the VGCSA president. We speak on a number of topics including the history of the industry and where both Shane and John came from as well. We continue on a topic John discussed with Dr Frank Rossi on the turfnet podcast and the expectations of golfers and how turf managers deal with this expectation. We also speak about our favourite weed poa and the research the VGCSA has undertaken.