Nick Wolfe, superintendent at Gunby Ranch Golf Club in Debolt, Alberta, Canada, has a unique role at a unique property. As part of the DeBolt & District Agricultural Society, he not only manages a 9-hole golf course, but also several ball fields, a curling center, and community center. With a team of just 4 (1 full time and 3 seasonal) people, they keep quite busy winter and summer.

Nick discusses the challenges of growing turf in a short season, recovering from almost inevitable winter turf damage, and of course the finer points of keeping a proper curling “ice sheet.”

Nick is an innovative “shoestring” superintendent who leans hard on biological soil management for solutions to his turf challenges on a tight budget. His has a creative way to create a closed loop system of recycling and composting to build healthy, resilient soils.

What a privilege to record live from the 2024 US Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club in Lancaster Pennsylvania. Josh Saunders, our host and the Director of Golf Course Operations at the club, allowed us to set up an outdoor studio and we took advantage of the opportunity. In this podcast we were joined by Pat Jones to talk turf and trends at the Open.

Most people in the golf course industry know Pat Jones, possibly because he documents his travels with an extensive number of selfie photos that he takes with his friends in the industry. Pat has been a valuable contributor to our industry and a great friend to the superintendent. He has been a previous guest of ours on the EarthWorks Podcast, and it is always informative and a lot of fun talking to Pat.

What does it take to coordinate an event like the US Women’s Open? Let’s find out in this jam-packed episode recorded during the event at Lancaster Country Club. We speak with Amanda Kambic, Director’s Assistant, about all of the details for vendor sponsorship and hosting an 80 person maintenance crew, and to the Horticulture Crew of Olivia and Tammy who were responsible for the beauty and vibe seen around the course.

We were also joined by George Manos, Golf Course Superintendent of Overlook Golf Course, a local Lancaster municipal course that supports the highly active golf community in Lancaster. All of the guests were very generous in sharing their knowledge and each talk has many nuggets of wisdom that you’ll love hearing!

If you ever wondered what it’s like to participate in the management of a major golf tournament this podcast will answer that question. This week we are Live (on tape) from the beautiful Lancaster Country Club with their superintendent team. Hear about the work that went into getting this course tournament ready and catch a glimpse into the day in the life of the crew and volunteers.

Coming to you directly from the 2024 US Women’s Open at the Lancaster Country Club in Lancaster Pennsylvania! What a great opportunity and pleasure to speak with Josh Saunders, the hosting superintendent, and his former mentor, Pete Wendt, from Congressional Country Club to talk about what it takes to get ready for a major championship tournament. 

We sat down a couple of hours after Josh was able to see the start of tournament on Thursday morning, which marked the culmination of over two years of hard work. Jack Higgins and Joel Simmons had a chance to hear about what it takes to pull off something of this magnitude. Josh talked about the challenges of managing a team of 120 volunteers and staff to make sure that they were ready for the week. 

It was clear that Josh was excited to have Pete and other fellow superintendents stop by to support him as he hosts his first major championship. A great conversation among old friends, and a real insight to the behind the scenes of the US Women’s Open.

As Professor of the Dept of Horticulture at the University of Arkansas since 1998, Dr. Mike Richardson’s contributions to the turfgrass industry have been many, and he shows no signs of slowing down! Listen to him share some insights about the student pipeline, leaving a legacy, and research projects that have practical value. He also gives his take on technology that is currently being used, and what he sees in the future.

When building a new golf course or spots field you have one shot at getting it right... and that is when you have open soil and can amend that soil to the fullest. In the 1990’s there was a trend toward building greens out of straight sand and superintendents came to us asking for help in building a better soil mix. We looked at this and asked ourselves the question — what does a soil have that a soilless medium doesn’t? That was the beginning of the EarthWorks construction program.

Since 1988, EarthWorks has worked with thousands of golf course superintendents and sports turf managers to develop amendment packages for new construction projects. In fact, if you scroll through the archives of the EarthWorks Podcasts you will find dozens of interviews with turf managers who have had great success with the EarthWorks amendment program.

In this podcast Kevin Hicks leads the conversation and we talk about the successes of amending a sand based soil to build the best possible environment for strong turf growth and we tell a few stories from a few of our podcast guests. Lots of good stories, lots of good information and maybe even a laugh or two!

The golf turf industry is getting more technologically advanced and many superintendents are learning how to embrace these changes. Matt Sumpter, Golf Course Superintendent at Columbia Country Club outside of Washington DC, knows a little about embracing new technologies. Formerly the Blue Course Superintendent at Congressional Country Club, he led a team through the new construction project. Matt talks about new software programs and GPS technologies that helped them build the course and get it up and running during a busy grow in. Most importantly he talks about not being afraid of these changes but embracing them knowing that with a little effort he and his team could make almost anything work.

He also talked about the process he used when interviewing for his current position and the marketing material he put together to show his new club his commitment to the position – and it worked! A fascinating and informative conversation worth the time for any turf manager. If efficiency is something you’re interested in give this podcast your undivided attention!

Steve Dickinson was an innovator in the turf distribution business throughout his entire career. He was the founder of a very successful distribution company, Supreme Turf, in St. Louis, Missouri that focused on the agronomic success of their clients.

Steve earned the title of "Soils Doctor" from many of his client friends and helped many superintendents understand the value of balancing soil chemistry. Steve had the opportunity to work with a local County Extension Agent who had studied under the University of Missouri‘s Dr. William Albrecht. Dr. Albrecht  is considered the father of cation balancing in a soil.

Steve talks about visiting golf course superintendents in the 1970’s and 80’s. Even then he talked about CEC and cation balancing, instead of just pH, and started building quite the following. Superintendents started to understand that fertilizers worked better on better soils and Steve helped them understand the importance of applying carbon to the soil.

In the late 1970’s the only “organic” fertilizers readily available were bio-solids, but through the years he was able to see the growth of carbon based fertility. He became an early adopter of the philosophies of EarthWorks and continued to manage soils from a cation perspective. Even today, during retirement, Steve still gets calls to make “Doctor’s" visits to golf course superintendents.

Tom Higgins knew the right setting for this conversation, a one hundred year old speakeasy lounge in the basement of the clubhouse at Jumping Brook Country Club in Neptune, NJ. The golf course celebrates its centennial next year and Tom discusses the major transformation the golf course has seen in the last two years in preparation for next year and beyond.

Enjoy this deep dive into Jumping Brook, a classic Tillinghast test of golf and the efforts made to preserve its character and interesting land features.

We are hrilled to bring back our friend and chemist, Lawrence Mayhew. As always, we run through a gamut of topics including humic substances, biological activity in the soil, the humification process and the life of soil microbes. Lawrence is always informative and entertaining and has become one of our most anticipated guests.

In this conversation we talked about a new procedure for testing soil nitrogen known as the ACE (Autoclaved Citrate Extractable) Nitrogen process. Lawrence shared some information about a recently published paper from researchers at Michigan State University. Although this paper was only published in the fall of 2023 and has no known commercial testing facilities using the method, Lawrence is very excited about its potential.

We ended the conversation talking about how the state of California tests products for humic acids, a flawed method that does not take into account that when humates are added to a formula that contains cations like calcium, the humic acids combine with the cations and is no longer extractable as a free molecule. But the good news is, this is exactly what we want to see because it tells us they are doing their job. As always, the conversation with Lawrence is intense, interesting and fun.

Wonder where the future of turf management might be in 2050? Join us for a glimpse into how technology advancements in the turf industry are already being used today. 

On this week’s podcast, we catch up with Benton Hodges, owner of Mountain West Turf Technologies. Benton was formerly the assistant superintendent at Shooting Star in Jackson Hole, WY, but recently broke out on his own after seeing the opportunity to represent the many technology advancements in the turf industry.

We talked about everything from the current state of robotic mowing, GPS sprayers, and even Artificial Intelligence and how we can use it to make our jobs easier. We took a glimpse into the future of turf management and where Benton sees us in the year 2050. We appreciate Benton taking time to talk with us about the many things he’s involved with. It was a great conversation about the future.  

It’s not often that we interview one of our own as a podcast guest, but this interview is long overdue. Learn more about Jack, the guy who suggested the idea of the Earthworks Podcast back in 2020. His passion for biological soil management and watching turf managers succeed began at St. Andrew’s Golf Club, Penn State and Lehigh Country Club.

An EarthWorks Agronomist since 2009, Jack has become known for his knowledge and his trademark style and sense of humor. 

In celebration of our 200th EW Podcast, our three podcast hosts are featured with one of their favorite guests. Joel chats with Glenn Smickley who he credits for much of the success of EarthWorks. Kevin meets with Dave Wilber, Turfgrass Consultant Extraordinaire and they talk about construction projects in the turf industry. Jack brings back one of our favorite Lawn Care Operators, Jay Lo Monaco from Paul’s Best Lawn Service where Jay shares his story of how carbon based fertility changed his business model.  

We welcome back Josh Saunders from Lancaster Country Club to talk about everything US Women’s Open 2024. The LCC crew is 70 days from the tournament and we discuss his agronomic plan for between now and the Open. We have a lot of fun in this podcast. There’s a lot of anticipation here.

We also discussed plans for setting up a studio to record EW podcasts with a variety of guests from LCC and volunteers from around the country during the tournament week. It’s gonna be great!

A former golf course superintendent, Edward Olsen is the Parks and Forestry Supervisor for the Town of Needham, Massachusetts. We have known Ed for over 20 years and followed him through his golf course career to his current position in the Town of Needham. The contrast in the two careers is very interesting and he loves his role in public service. It is not uncommon for golf course superintendents to take jobs in the public sector. There are many reasons they make the switch and Ed cites security being one of them.

The challenges in public service are unique, and Ed shares some of those stories with us. He also talked about his days on the golf course including a very precarious start with a superintendent who was less than excited to have him on board!  One of the more fascinating stories he shared was about learning the 150 rule from one of his mentors. He was learning to scout for insect and disease pressures and how to spot problems before they started. The 150 rule is when temperature and humidity reach a collective number of 150 for three days. This is the point at which we know that disease incubation has hit critical mass and disease becomes inevitable. A very funny conversation that will keep you entertained, and you just may pick up a few tricks!

Dr. Claire Phillips of the USDA Agricultural Research Service discusses her research into the value of turf systems in the arena of carbon sequestration. She tells a very compelling story about golf courses that we think is important to share. With this information we are all better informed, and can tell the positive story of turf and golf courses to the general public.

Listen to "The EW Podcast - Kevin Hicks with Dr. Claire Phillips" on Spreaker.

Since 2015 Clint Steele has managed the sports fields at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) mostly by himself! When he arrived at this Division 1 school there was an assistant on his staff but that didn’t last long and ever since he has been on his own to manage nine fields, eight of which are natural grass.

Years before he worked at George Mason University where he was introduced to the concepts of Biological Soil Management and carbon based fertility. He now follows the same practices and says it helps him reduce inputs, which saves him precious time. He is able to outsource a lot of the work with contactors, and often some of the baseball and softball players will pitch in to keep the fields playing and looking good.

Clint got his start in the sports turf industry when he was a high school baseball player, realized that he was not going to make the pros, so he started working to help with the field. His advice for anyone who may want to get into the sports turf industry is “ you have to love it!” A great conversation full of tidbits that can help any grass grower.

Listen to "The EW Podcast - Joel Simmons with Clint Steele" on Spreaker.