In this TurfNet Renovation Report, Anthony Pioppi interviews Donnie Beck, superintendent at Fishers Island Club, about their major irrigation system renovation. Beck, the fifth superintendent in the course's 100-year history, discusses the unique challenges of maintaining a links-style golf course located in New York — seven miles off the Connecticut coast.

In this episode of the TurfNet Renovation Report, host Bradley Klein sits down with veteran golf course architect Andy Staples. Their discussion focuses on the changes of contemporary golf course design to focus on playability, ease of maintenance and long-term sustainability in the face of shifts in pesticide and fertilizer use and the rising costs of and access to water.

The discussion also includes a look into the relationship between architects and superintendents, escalating renovation budgets, advances in drainage and bunker technology, and the influence of social media and modern golf media on member awareness. 

Finally, Staples discusses his involvement with the American Society of Golf Course Architects and his passion for education, collaboration and sharing real-world problem-solving with peers.

In this episode of the Renovation Report sponsored by Golf Preservations and CapillaryFlow, Tim Falvey, superintendent of Inwood Country Club on New York's Long Island talks with Bradley S. Klein about a recent golf trip to Scotland and how that experience has helped shape his outlook as a golf course superintendent.

The discussion includes how course management differs in the U.S. from Scotland because of increased disease pressure here. Falvey also talks about how golfers covet firm and fast conditions, yet also believe lush and green conditions are what make a great golf course, and offers tips on how to communicate to stakeholders how those firm and fast and lush and green are mostly mutually exclusive.

In this episode of the Renovation Report, sponsored by Golf Preservations and CapillaryFlow, Brandon Johnson talks about his entry into the game playing as a child and how that led eventually to a successful career as a golf course architect.

A graduate of North Carolina State University, Johnson also earned a master's degree in landscape architecture from Harvard University.

Johnson discusses how his time as a student at NC State prepared him for continuing his education at Harvard, and how postgraduate studies in the Ivy League provided unique experiences that he probably would not have been exposed to otherwise.

Some of those experiences include working at the PGA Tour Design School, being the lead architect for the First Tee program and study-abroad opportunities in locations such as England, France, Italy and Switzerland and how each helped form his career that includes learning under Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay.

Bradley S. Klein, Ph.D., talks with golf course architect Stephen Kay of Kay Golf Course Design about their friendship that dates almost 40 years, and how it intersects with the changing face of municipal golf in the United States.

In this discussion, sponsored by Golf Preservations and CapillaryFlow, Key discusses how and why the majority of the design and renovation jobs have changed from mostly private to about 70 percent municipal projects.

The discussion includes how many municipalities have changed the way they view their golf course properties, and how golfers who patronize them are more savvy about the game and course conditioning than in the past.

Finally, the discussion addresses the importance of regular communication with superintendents and local officials during municipal design and renovation projects for numerous reasons, that include building a course that can accommodate beginners without alienating low-handicap players, as well as differences in how private and municipal properties are maintained. For example, areas around tees must be larger because they are subject to excess wear and because triplex mowers are used to maintain them. The area around greens must also be larger to give boom sprayers room to turn.

In this episode of the Renovation Report, presented by Capillary Flow and Golf Preservations, golf course architect Dave Zinkand of Zinkand Golf Designs, talks about his philosophy of creating layouts that are playable, easy-to-maintain designs as well as environmentally friendly and sustainable.

Zinkand, whose career began working with the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, talks about the challenges associated with designing and building WeKoPa Golf Club on reservation land in the Arizona dessert,
work at Bandon Dunes in Oregon and a recent renovation of Monterey Peninsula Country Club in California.

The discussion also addresses work at the Chechessee Creek Club in Okatie, South Carolina, where Zinkand has designed a 12-hole course to accompany the 18-hole Coore-Crenshaw design built 25 years ago.

In this episode of the Renovation Report presented by Capillary Flow and Golf Preservations, Richard Mandell of Richard Mandell Golf Architecture, speaks with Brad Klein about his approach to golf course design as well as the specifics about some of his most recent restoration and original design projects.

Mandell, whose experience has a linear connection to Donald Ross, talks about the elements (such as color, form, scale, shape, space and texture) and principles (balance, contrast, proportion, unity and variety) of golf course design and how each is applied to specific parts of the golf course.

In this discussion, Mandell goes in depth about his restoration work at drainage-plagued courses in Minnesota and Florida and how his design helps each naturally move water off the property. Finally, he discusses his plans for a new heathland-style golf course in North Carolina that will include removing and replacing all bunkers on the course with grass hollows.

In this episode of the Renovation Report presented by Capillary Flow and Golf Preservations, Justin Mandon, superintendent at Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, California, discusses a 2023-24 restoration of greens and bunkers focused on recapturing as closely as possible Alister Mackenzie's original intent when he designed the course on the north side of Monterey Bay in 1929.

Mandon talks about the club's history from its opening and how it served as an inspiration for Bobby Jones to hire Mackenzie, who lived in a home on the 14th fairway, to design Augusta National Golf Club.

The discussion includes digging down several inches on each green to find the original contours, how the project helped reclaim numerous pinnable locations that had been lost over time and restoring bunkers to their original design (and numbers) thanks to aerial photography.

In this episode of the Renovation Report, golf course architect Tyler Rae of Tyler Rae Design talks about his route into architecture that began with years of experience working on a golf course maintenance crew.

The discussion proceeds to include starting a design firm in the midst of a recession with no work on the horizon, and how he built a career on a well-rounded architect who knows his way around earth-moving equipment as well as he does a set of blueprints.

The conversation finally turns to how the creative process takes over with the end result being how the final product does not always look like what he presented on paper and how to have that discussion with a club's stakeholders.

Anthony Pioppi chats with long-time TurfNet member Tom Mcavoy, CGCS, about the upcoming 27-hole Brian Silva renovation of Old Westbury Golf & Country Club in Old Westbury, NY.

In this episode of the Renovation Report sponsored by Golf Preservations, Brad Klein talks with golf course architect Jay Blasi of Jay Blasi Design about how he followed his dream to design and build golf courses against the advice of his college instructors and advisors.
    
Blasi talks about his work on some of the game's most high-profile properties, including Chambers Bay, Poppy Ridge, Century World and Burl Oaks.
    
Blasi also discusses, in the face of a complete renovation, the process for selling members and boards on the value of closing and getting everything completed at one time vs. proceeding in a piecemeal manner that takes multiple years and how doing so typically is more cost effective and yields a better end product.

In this episode of the Renovation Report, sponsored by Golf Preservations, Chad Goetz, senior design associate with Nicklaus Design, talks with John Reitman about a recent restoration of the Cochise Course at Desert Mountain in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Goetz talks about the history of this Nicklaus Signature Course that was the original site of The Tradition on the PGA Champions Tour, and the thought process that led to this restoration.

Goetz also discusses some of the historic design features of the layout, the work that went into retaining them and turf choices then went into the restoration.
 

Tony Pioppi chats with Eric Morrison, CGCS at Shennecossett Golf Course in Groton, CT, about the seemingly perpetual (since 2009) gradual renovation of the 125 year old Donald Ross designed municipal course located on Long Island Sound. Many of the 100+ bunkers are being renovated for the first time, funded with non-traditional financing within a municipal setting. Plenty at "Royal Shenny" for fans of golf course architecture and history.

Presented by Golf Preservations.

In this episode of Renovation Report Emily Casey, assistant superintendent at Seven Canyons Golf Club in Sedona, Arizona, talks with Brad Klein about her non-traditional route into the turf business from the corporate world.

Casey, who has been chosen to attend next year's BTME conference as part of the Links to Success program, never played golf before moving from the Midwest to Arizona, and discusses learning through on-the-job training and getting valuable renovation experience under superintendent Andy Huber. 

Casey also discusses how her dog Barley has become the darling of the golf course, the presence of javelinas on the property and the resulting and sudden rise of her social media presence and how it has helped build a new audience of what takes place at Seven Canyons.

Brad Klein, Ph.D., talks with Scott Ramsay, CGCS, about his career as a golf course superintendent as well as his new position as an ambassador for U.S. Pitchcare, a consulting service started by a trio of golf course superintendents to help other greenkeepers and sports turf managers find solutions to common turfgrass challenges. 

Ramsay, the 2006 TurfNet Superintendent of the Year and a past president of the Connecticut GCSA, talks about his career managing a union operation at Yale Golf Club, his decision to retire as a superintendent and what led him to U.S. Pitchcare.

Their discussion looks at how the job of a golf course superintendent has changed and the shifting demands placed upon the position, such as environmental and government regulations and challenges, golfer demand, labor issues and sacrifices on family time to name a few.

Finally, as new course construction remains slow compared to golf's boom-and-bust era of a generation ago, the discussion includes the focus on restoration projects and the importance of investing in the golf course.

Brad Klein talks with Bob Farren, CGCS, of Pinehurst Resort about his 40-plus-year career at the 10-course property in the North Carolina Sandhills. 

Their discussion traces the progression of the property in general and specifically the storied history of Pinehurst's famed No. 2 course that was built by Donald Ross a century ago.

Pinehurst No. 2 transformed throughout its history as a favorite course of the USGA from its original design to a tree-lined course with narrow fairways to the rustic gem it is today after the restoration by the architectural team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw.

Finally, the discussion includes Pinehurst's role with the USGA, what is next for the property and its role with Sandhills Community College in helping groom the next generation of golf course superintendents.

Paul Jamrog returned "home" to oversee the transformation of the former Metacomet Country Club in East Providence, RI, into Met Links, an innovative 9-hole public golf course on a portion of the 90 acre Metacomet property.

Jamrog was the golf course superintendent at Metacomet Country Club from 1994 to 2013, when he transitioned into sales. In financial difficulty for some time, Metacomet was purchased for development by Marshall Properties in 2020, with a desire to retain and redesign a portion of the golf course. Robert McNeil ASGCA and the Northeast Golf Company were brought in to spearhead the renovation, and Jamrog was called back to manage the transition. More on that here.

In this conversation with Anthony Pioppi, Jamrog reflects on coming back as a superintendent again to a very different property from when he left eight years prior. He also credits his time in sales with creating within him a greater awareness of the universe of turf care products available to the superintendent today.

Bradley S. Klein, Ph.D., talks with Illinois-based golf course architect Michael Benkusky (right) of Michael J. Benkusky Golf Course Architecture about his start in golf course design and why some consider it the best profession in the golf industry.

Benkusky also discusses how his business is one of relationships and the importance of designing golf courses that are fun yet also offer strategic challenges throughout.

Finally, they discuss the camaraderie that exists between architects even in the face of competition for winning design and restoration projects.

The discussion includes the increased need for a project manager as projects increase in complexity due to the many facets of each job.