Leadership

Purpose
The purpose of this program is to encourage local turfgrass students to pursue a career in golf course management by introducing them to established turf professionals that will openly share their knowledge, information and experience in the industry.

Scope of Program
The scope of the program consists of matching an established turf/landscape professional with a student from the Cuyumaca College Ornamental Horticulture Turf Management Class (174). The student/mentor pairing will be expected to complete the following components of the program. continue

Hello All,

For those who have not heard, we lost a true artist and craftsman over the week end as Ken passed on to the next step of life’s journey on Saturday. He was 67 years young. He graduated from Hoover in San Diego with the class of 1960.

He was a former San Diego Police Officer and had retired eight years ago from San Diego Country Estates where he was the Golf Course Superintendent. He had lived near Santa Ysabel with his wife Cathy for the last nineteen years in a home that his dad and friends had started out building as a simple family retreat back in the 1960s. Over the years Ken had transformed it, along with the efforts of his wife Cathy, into a very comfortable home for full time living.

Ken had fought a courageous battle with squamous cell lung cancer for almost two years. He passed with family and friends at his side, all praying for a peaceful transition, which he was granted.

Ken was a founding member of the Piston Pounders Car Club in 1959 and had attended recent reunions and local automotive events and shows, with his wife Cathy, often driving their black 1965 Falcon Coupe, in which he had recently installed a 5 speed transmission and had a whole bunch of louvers punched in the hood. That car has been in his family since it was new. He was a member of the old San Diego Timing Association (SDTA) in the 1950s and 60s and was a participant in local meets over years past. He was also instrumental in the opening and operation of San Diego Raceway at Ramona where he raced a 1963 Dodge and a Hemi powered Model A Coupe.

His most recent passion was garden railroading. He became interested about 9 years ago and proceeded to design and hand build a layout so impressive that it was featured in several publications including a German Magazine where they did a full color layout of his garden railroad and his hand created, built to scale, buildings, bridges, streams, lakes, loading platforms and other miniature scenery items. (Many of the higher end locomotives are built in Germany.) The layout consists of over 1/4 mile of track which he hand laid using miniature ties and spikes. He was an active member of the San Diego Garden Railroad Society and served as a club officer until recently.

Ken had many passions over his lifetime and enjoyed them all. He fished Pro Bass Tournaments for over 20 years and won or placed in many.

Not the least of his passions were his children, grandchildren and the love of family and friends. He cherished them all.

He was always ready with a helping and qualified hand to assist in whatever you were doing. For all who knew him, he will truly be missed.

A Celebration of Ken’s Life is planned for 11:00 am, July 31, 2010 at:
First Congregational Church of Ramona
404 8th at D St
Ramona, CA.

I never thought this day would come, but it has and I am extremely happy. My longtime friend and someone I have always admired, Gary Dalton is retiring from San Diego Country Club. Since the first day he arrived in San Diego from Illinois he has been a leader in the golf course industry. He has always been an innovator, trend setter, and someone who never settled for what was available. He created the tools necessary to have the best product. My father and Gary were the best of friends; he constantly challenged my father and would pull out his calculator to let my father know the cost per unit of a product was too high. Gary’s first superintendent job was at Stardust Country Club (Riverwalk GC) in 1975, this course regularly flooded, the sodium levels were extremely high, and the amount of traffic from play was significant. Gary handled every challenge and created a strong golf course with excellent greens. His reputation started to grow as one of the top superintendents in the country. In 1989 he accepted the job at San Diego Country Club where his reputation grew even greater. This golf course has terrible water; they tried a reverse osmosis system for three greens at one point. The soil is a heavy clay silt and the roughs had very thin turf coverage, with all of these and many more problems Gary worked SDCC into one of the premier golf course in Southern California. continue

Executive Board

• President: Vince Zellefrow, Marbella Country Club
• Vice-President: Brian Sandland, Bear Creek Golf Club
• Secretary/Treasurer: Geoff Haynes, Maderas Golf Club

Board of Directors

• Michael Bailey, Warner Springs Ranch Golf Course
• Brian Darrock, Fairbanks Ranch Country Club
• Phil Fitzgerald, Steele Canyon Golf Club
• Kent Graff, Encinitas Ranch Golf Club
• Paul Zaremba, Oceanside Golf Course

Affiliate Liaison

• Chris Bunnell, Crop Production Services
• Kimberly Gard, Syngenta Professional Products

The SDGCSA Board of Directors cordially invite you to attend an Affiliate Member Luncheon at the Bonita Golf Club on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 11:00 am. Come enjoy a Mexican Buffet and drinks, “AT NO COST”, and offer up your opinions and concerns in order for us to better serve you as a Board with the Association.

The Board of Directors has been working diligently to continually evaluate the sponsorship packages to determine the best value for you our Affiliate sponsors. We would like your input and suggestions to be heard by the board so we can evaluate if changes should be considered to the existing process or if the needs are being met for all parties concerned.

We would like your feedback on:

• Satisfaction with the current sponsorship packages.
• Potential opportunities for additional advertising.
• Ideas to bring in Industry Partner revenue that will keep monthly meeting costs affordable to all members.
• Individual meeting sponsorships.
• Dues packaged with sponsorship.
• Recruit the next 2 affiliate representatives to the Board.
• Other concerns.

Please mark your calendars and make every effort to attend this very important meeting as the topics discussed will play a large part in furthering the strength of our association in the years to come.

Please RSVP to info@sdgcsa.com or visit the website at www.sdgcsa.com on the Events page by April 14, 2010.

Thank you in advance

SDGCSA Board of Directors

SUSTAINABILITY – What does that word mean to you?

The SDGCSA was a lunch sponsor for the Cuyumaca College’s 2nd Annual Sustainable Landscapes Conference on March 11/12th. A great big thank you goes out to Bill Homyak from Southwestern College for volunteering to distribute the EIFG Environmental Profiles Volumes 1-3 and the Sustainability Initiative information brochures provided by GCSAA. Steve Sinram from Bonita Golf Club helped with set up and made sure our sponsor signs were on display to show which companies help support the local golf course industry.

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Southwestern College’s basic turf management and soil classes are about to begin for the spring semester. Details can be found on the educational partners section of the education page.

Information for Bayer: Beyond the Basics, a series of (6) 60 minute webinars is also posted.

By Geoff Haynes, Director of Agronomy
Maderas Golf Club

Happy Holidays to everyone!

It’s just about that time of year again… you know, when Troy’s Patriots let him down in the playoffs? And yes, since I’m a Seahawks fan I realize I have no room to talk. But seriously, March is right around the corner and with it comes our Third Annual Assistant Superintendent Training Camp. Hard to believe we have two of them under our belts already!

This year’s installment finds us in Mr. Burgraffs backyard at Riverwalk GC on March 10 and 11. The speakers are still being tracked down, but to all you Affiliate members out there, please consider contributing to our Raffle/ Golf prizes as you have in the past. Anything would be great, but especially gift cards for gas, groceries, Home Depot etc would go a long way for these right-hand men and women.

Assistants are largely overworked and underpaid and anything you and your companies could do would be much appreciated… especially considering that it’s just plain tough all over out there. Thank-you for your consideration. And to all you Supes out there, please email me at ghaynes@maderasgolf.com with your narrative nominations for the Asst Supt. of the Year Award. Once again we will be sifting through a pile of worthy nominees, reading why they should take home the illustrious prize. We will do this despite the fact that some Supts last year blatantly ignored the max word limit imposed by this Author, though we would never name any names…*cough* Barrier *cough*. continue

The San Diego Golf Course Superintendents Association announces new leadership and award recipients on April 16, 2009 at the SDGCSA Annual Meeting at Coronado Golf Course in Coronado, California.

Executive Board

• President: Brendon Reaksecker (Bonita G.C.)
• Vice President: Vince Zellefrow (The Golf Club of California)
• Secretary/Treasurer: Brian Sandland (Bear Creek G.C.)
• Immediate Past President: Troy Mullane (The Farms G.C.)

2009 GGCSA Board of Directors:

• Chris Hayman (JC Resorts – Oaks North GC)
• Brian Darrock (Fairbanks Ranch C.C.)
• Geoff Haynes (Maderas G.C.)
• Phil Fitzgerald (Steele Canyon G.C.)
• Kent Graff (JC Resorts – Encinitas Ranch G.C.)
• Teddy Rosztoczy (Sr. Affiliate Rep – AA Equipment)
• David Kovack (Jr. Affiliate Rep – Grangetto’s Farm & Garden)

SDGCSA would also like to recognize the following exceptional individuals who were honored for their service and dedication to the SDGCSA and golf industry in San Diego and for their contributions to the association.

• Dave Waymire, CGCS – American Golf
• Geff Ward, CPS
• Dave Kovack, Grangetto’s Farm and GardenRon Nolf, CGCS – Vista Valley C.C.
• John Baasch – Lomas Santa Fe G.C.
• Sandy Clark, CGCS – Barona Creek G.C.
• Glenn Foreman, CGCS – Ocean Hills C.C.
• Mark Grund – Mark Grund Enterprises

The 2009 Superintendent of the Year Award and 2009 Vendor of the Year Award will be presented to the winners at the Annual Invitational on June 2, 2009 at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club.

April 16th is the Association’s Annual Election Meeting. Voting will take place for Board positions at this
meeting as well as the Jr. Affiliate Rep position. Following are the people running for positions on your Board of
Directors. An asterisk (*) indicates the candidate is an incumbent. The new members of the Board will be
announced at the conclusion of the meeting. Hope to see you at Coronado Golf Course.

Below is the Statements of Candidates To The 2009 SDGCSA Board of Directors: continue