Gary Player (right) o f which Norley is founder and C E O , is speaks with Mat t all about water conservation with its soil Shaffer (center) sensor technology. T h e 73-year-old Player and Bill Myers. is just as passionate about the subject.

H o w passionate?

Recently, Player dined in a California restaurant. Sitting on the table was a sign that read, " W a t e r Upon Request ." Player smiled upon seeing the sign, knowing that a lot o f water is wasted in restaurants by diners who are served it without requesting it and then don't drink it.

" I w e n t to the manager and said, ' T h a n k you for doing this, ' " Player said.

Player did that because he's astounded about how much po-table water is wasted in the United States. "Every day, 150 mil-lion glasses o f water are poured down the drain," he claims.

Player was the guest o f honor at a reception held by A S T for g o l f course superintendents and others in the profession at the House o f Blues during the show.

Continued on page 32

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Continued from page 31

Top Dog D o you have a dog? W a s your dog glad to see you after you returned home from the show? Did your dog greet you by lap-ping you with his slobber-teemed tongue when you opened the door to your house? Did you miss your mutt just as badly?

Knowing how you feel about your dog, you'll be sad to hear about the death o f another dog and the gr ief that his owners are enduring because of their loss. You might know the dog: His name is Willie, and he's the 7-year-old German shorthaired pointer mix that adorned the January month in LebanonTurf s 2 0 0 9 D o g Days o f G o l f Calendar. Willie died on Jan . 2 9 of a malignant tumor.

Willie belongs to Steve McCormick , the golf course super-intendent at the Columbia C o u n t r y C l u b in Chevy Chase, M d . M c C o r m i c k and his wife, J e n , called Wil l ie their "be -loved soul mate . " T h e M c C o r m i c k s rescued Wil l ie from a shelter in St. Louis. It was a match made in heaven.

"Wil l ie was an absolute blessing to our family, our neigh-bors, and our friends and to the greens staff and many m e m -bers at C o l u m b i a , " M c C o r m i c k said. "As many o f us grieve our loss o f Willie, what is undeniable is the incredibly blessed life that Willie had for almost eight years. H e lived his life to the absolute fullest, even up to his final hours."

Willie will be remembered for many things, including a won-derful posthumous honor he received during the show. Willie was voted the winner o f the sixth-annual " D o g o f the Year" contest sponsored by LebanonTurf and presented by Golfdom. Voting was conducted among more than 5 0 0 superintendents and other G I S at-tendees in New Orleans. Willie was chosen for the honor from among the 14 candidates that appear in the 2 0 0 9 calendar. Duke and Bella, the cover dogs who belong to Wayne and Lynn Hand of Bucks-port (Maine) G o l f Club, finished second in the voting.

"Will ie would have been very honored," M c C o r m i c k said. "Knowing he was giving back to the place he loved so much would make him very happy."

Rest in peace, Willie.

Speeding Up S low Play A c o m m o n complaint by today's golfers is that it takes too much time to play a round. In fact, it is the No . 2 golfer gripe following poor course conditions.

"Slow play is not a problem. Like a fever, it is a symptom o f other problems," Bill Yates, C E O o f Grey T o w n G o l f in Pebble Beach, Calif., told attendees during a seminar on "Pace o f Play: Myths & Miracles."

Yates and golf course architect Forrest Richardson o f For-rest Richardson & Associates in Phoenix dissected the reasons

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Wil l ie lived l i fe to for slow play and offered some solutions, the fu l lest , says Yates said it is a myth that players are the his owner Steve primary cause of slow play. W h i l e admit-McCormick . ting that new golfers can slow things down,

he said one way to help is to keep an eye on them, schedule them outside prime hours and to get them playing from the correct tees. "Course setup is a key," Yates said, adding that routing, course condit ioning and the day-to-day practices o f the management and marshalls as other considerations.

T h e course conditions are the place where superintendents can make a difference. "Long grass in the wrong place is worse than bunkers or water," Yates said.

Call It Golf W i t h Tra in ing W h e e l s . T h e Osgood G o l f Course is a par-33, nine-hole public club in Fargo, N . D . , designed by Kevin Atkinson o f Phelps Design. But if you haven't got the time, you can play a three-hole loop for just $ 5 . In Minnesota , there is a Robert T r e n t Jones II-

designcd reversible three-hole course built around the driving range that can be played clockwise or counterclockwise (not at the same time, o f course).

"Architects as a whole have always sup-ported the idea of smaller facilities, alternative

facilities," says Rick Phelps, owner of Phelps Atkinson Design in Evergreen, Colo. "That 's been the missing link in that market segment." Phelps spoke at the American Society o f G o l f Course Architects press conference.

Show Shorts T h e United States G o l f Association will become a participating partner o f the G o l f Industry Show beginning in 2 0 1 0 in San Diego. . . . James R o n e y j r . , superintendent o fSaucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem, Pa., was named the overall win-ner o f the 2 0 0 8 GCSAA/Gol f Digest Environmental Leaders in G o l f Awards. T h e national winners were: National Private & Overall : J ames R o n e y j r . , Saucon Valley Country Club, Bethlehem, Pa.; National Public: David Phipps, Stone Creek G o l f Course, Oregon City, Ore. ; National Resort: Joel Blaker, T a h o e Mountain Club, Truckee, Calif.; International: Robin Sadler, Silvertip Resort, Canmore , Alberta, Canada. •

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T h e o d d s w e r e a g a i n s t I t a l y ' s B e a t r i c e F r a n c e s c h i t o b r e a k i n t o t h e U.S. g o l f a r c h i t e c t u r e b u s i n e s s . But with a little help from Nicklaus Design, she is well on her way

Beatrice Franceschi consults wi th Chris Cochran of the Nicklaus Design team.

How do you break a glass ceiling,? Do you climb up on a ladder and poke it with an iron bar, knowing that you will probably get hurt in the process? Or do you just stand offto the side, safe and secure, and wait for someone else to break itfor you?

I f you're a young person who's aspiring to be a golf course designer who doesn't speak English and is a woman trying to enter a traditionally male-dominated profession, merely standing and waiting isn't good enough. T h a t is the dilemma that faced Beatrice Fran-

ceschi of Pisa, Italy, when she decided to take a

long shot and faxa one-page résumé , to the N i c k l a u s Des ign of f ice in

North Palm Beach,

Fla . , in the spring o f 2 0 0 7 . Franceschi was about to graduate with an advanced degree from the University o f Pisa's renowned school o f agriculture with a degree in urban landscape design. Like all aspiring young professionals, Franceschi wanted to realize her dream to be a golf course designer.

By faxing her resume to Nicklaus Design, she had just taken her first step in breaking the glass ceiling.

I had just returned to work for Nicklaus Design after a nine-year stint head-

ing up the a g r o n o m y program for the P G A T o u r . I missed the golf course design business and

was excited to get back. The first week at my desk found

me looking at Franceschi 's r é s u m é . N o o n e k n e w

Continued on page 36

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d i s t r i b u t i o n u n i f o r m i t y o v e r t h e w i d e s t r a n g e o f c o n d i t i o n s . N o w t h a t ' s T h e I n t e l l i g e n t U s e o f W a t e r . "

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Continued from page 34 what to do with it. It probably wouldn't have gotten past the human resources department's polite "thanks but no thanks" had I not been there to intercept it.

It was clear that Franceschi was not experienced enough to be hired as a production assistant, the traditional starting point for apprentice designers in our office. From there, they graduate to design coordinators in the field, and eventually, i f they arc good — really good — they b e c o m e design as-sociates. M o s t applicants c o m e from the landscape design field of study, but the good ones also have a s t rong agro-nomic and playing background to round out their qualifica-tions. Franceschi had the coveted landscape design degree, augmented by a specialization in agronomy and some golf course maintenance experience. She also indicated she played golf, but I sensed this was probably at a basic level. It was also clear that her knowledge o f English was even more basic, and I was tempted to dismiss her inquiry with a letter saying, " G o o d luck with your career aspirations." But some-th ing intr igued m e about this y o u n g woman. She was either incredibly naive or completely audacious to send this fax to what is generally regarded as the most successful golf course design business in the world. T h a t she had done so with-out a referral said something about her determination, and I decided to test it.

T h e O h i o State University's M i k e O'Keeffe and I have had a long working relationship since he took over the reigns of the school's international internship program. I've lectured to his students on several occasions and had the pleasure of working with many o f them in my duties as a tournament agronomist for the P G A T o u r . I knew his was a top-notch program and offered the best opportunity for international students to gain exposure and experience in the United States at high-level golf courses.

Whi le Franceschi did not technically fit the mold o f the normal student intern, I felt this was the best way to help her get into the United States and potentially work in our office as a trainee. O 'Keef fe was quick to offer his help and out o f our discussions c a m e a tailored program that would bring Franceschi to North Palm Beach as a design intern, the first ever for the O h i o State program. W i t h J a c k Nicklaus' close tics to Ohio State, this seemed a natural way for us to continue to support his alma mater.

T h e next step was up to Franceschi. She had to learn English in four short months in order to be accepted into the program. Not to my surprise, she did just that and would become the first intern from Ohio State working in the Nicklaus Design office.

Franceschi had just picked up a rock. W h e n O ' K e e f f e asked me to struc-

ture a p r o g r a m for F r a n c e s c h i , we jointly decided that her first experience should be working on the maintenance crew at T h e Bear's Club . T h i s is Jack 's Florida home course, designed by him, loved by h i m and closely watched by

him. His right-hand man to keep the course in true Nicklaus playing condit ion is superintendent John Katterheinrich, a long-time member o f the Nicklaus fraternity o f turf profes-sionals. Katterheinrich had just begun a renovation of the fairways, bunkers and greens, and we felt this would be good experience for Franceschi to see how agronomy, construction and design work together.

T h e r e was only one minor problem. It gets brutally hot in south Florida in May; hot enough to wither the most-ac-climated worker. Franceschi had a tough time adjusting the first couple o f weeks, but she hung in there, t r imming pal-mettos and hauling debris. Franceschi comes from Northern Italy, where the temperatures in May are more like O h i o than Florida and stay that way all summer. She is also o f slight build and soft voice — two qualities that could lead you to think she might not be at home sweating it out on a golf course doing hard labor nine hours a day. She didn't like it, but she did her job , working with an all-male crew and holding her own. In the process she earned their respect and mine.

Franceschi was taking dead aim at the glass ceiling. Continued on page 38

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Ignore Them and They'll Go Away Pro tec t y o u r c o u r s e ' s s i g n a t u r e t r e e s . A s t h e p i o n e e r o f m i c r o - i n f u s i o n , M a u g e t h a s b e e n t h e t r u s t e d s o u r c e f o r t r e e h e a l t h s i n c e 1 9 5 8 . O u r c o m p l e t e l y e n c l o s e d a p p l i c a t i o n m e t h o d m a k e s t r e e c a r e e a s y , s a f e a n d c o s t - e f f e c t i v e .

T h e R i g h t W a y t o T r e a t a T r e e

Continued from page 36 W e gave Franceschi a break and sent her to Muirfield Village

G o l f Club in Dublin, Ohio , to work a week at the Memorial Tournament in May. She spent time with the bunker crews and ultimately was partnered with Certified Superintendent Russ Myers o f Southern Hills Country Club to do the Stimpmeter readings. In the afternoon, she spent time on the cleanup crew, getting home late and up early with little sleep in between. She absolutely loved the experience and said it changed her whole outlook on golf course design and agronomy.

W h e n Franceschi returned to south Florida, she was even more determined to reach her goal and asked i f she could get more golf course maintenance experience. T h e Bear s Club was essentially shut down for a regrassing, so I asked J i m Sprankle III , certified superintendent o f T h e Loxahatchee Club in nearby Jupiter, if he would allow Franceschi to work on his crew for the remainder o f the first phase o f her intern-ship. H e graciously agreed, and involved Franceschi in all phases o f golf course maintenance, including mowing, fertil-izing, spraying and irrigation.

Franceschi had started her windup. At the end o f June, the t ime came for Franceschi to move

into the Nicklaus Design office in Golden Bear Plaza. S h e

already met Jack while working at T h e Bear's C l u b and got a personal lesson in greens and bunker design in the process. She also spent t ime with Chris Cochran, a senior design as-sociate, and Jerame Miller, one o f the best golf course shapers in the world, learning how to check elevations and float green contours. Miller also took Franceschi on a walking tour o f the Links Course at Bear Lakes C o u n t r y C l u b , a recently completed renovation o f a Nicklaus Signature Course in West Palm Beach that virtually blew up the old layout to create a new one. Since he had personally shaped the course, Jerame explained the philosophy o f the design as well as the tech-niques on how to create what the designer wants. After that lesson, I brought Franceschi back to Bear Lakes to talk about agronomy, and we also looked at North Palm Beach Country C l u b , a Seth Raynor design from the 1920s that J a c k rede-signed two years ago to much acclaim. She was beginning to understand how it all fits together. But her biggest challenge was now at hand — learning how to design a golf course.

There arc many ways to learn the mechanics o f golf course design. O l d hands will tell you the best way is to c o m e up from the bottom, working on a golf course as a greenskeeper and eventually a superintendent and then graduating into construction and later design. S o m e evolve out of the ranks o f g o l f s teaching and playing professionals. Others prefer a more scholastic approach, studying the masters and getting classroom instruction on the more technical points of design, followed by an apprenticeship and hopefully a promotion to course designer.

W e took a more hybrid approach with Franceschi knowing that her training will not be over when she returns to Italy. She has a very strong background in landscape design principles. She could probably even now go to work in an urban landscape design company and be successful. W e felt there was no point in her spending more time in golf course maintenance training, the traditional role o f the Ohio State Internship Program.

Since Franceschi already had a basic knowledge o f agron-omy, we decided to concentrate her remaining time on a crash course in design. Someone once told me the best way to learn something is to just do it. From experience, I know one either

Continued on page 40

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Continued from page 38 sinks or swims. Franceschi showed us she not only swims, she has an Olympian's determination to get the gold. W e gave her an old topography map from a stalled project in the country o f Macedonia, and told her to simply design the golf course. In other words, she was going to design a gol f course from start to finish. She would have at her disposal a great deal o f help, but this was her project, and she could do it any way she wanted to. Franceschi was undaunted.

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The rock was far back in her hand and poised to be unleashed with a deadly force.

Franceschi began designing her first golf course last sum-mer. She started with the routing and got some personal at-tention from Jack Nicklaus in the process. She also received plenty o f assistance from others at the firm. I worked with her on the agronomy side and tried to treat her as i f she was a full-fledged design associate. W e looked at drainage, irrigation, grasses and flow — all in concert with assistance she received

from the Nicklaus Design team. The rock was rapidly being pulled for-

ward now, her eyes directly on the target. Today, Franceschi is back home in Italy.

H e r design is complete with contours and grading plans. S h e was told by her peers before she left that i f the design was the real deal, it would have made a great Nicklaus-designed golf course.

Franceschi had an experience that other stu-dents can only think about. T h e job picture in the United States and Europe is dismal for any-one wanting to enter the design business. It will recover, o f course, but no one is hiring design apprentices right now. T h i s has not stopped Franceschi from reaching her goal. She volun-teers her time in a building architecture firm so she can stay active in design. She is complet-ing her thesis in urban landscape design for her graduate degree and has her sights set on being a productive member o f a design firm.

I f she doesn ' t , it won' t be from lack o f determination. Franceschi will make it. She has looked Jack Nicklaus in the eye and said she wants to become a gol f course designer. H e d i d n ' t laugh. S h e sweated and ached from working in the hot Florida sun from morning to night, and kept coming back for more. She left her entire family and fiancee in Italy to come to North Palm Beach in her first trip abroad to learn the trade from what she believed was the best design firm in the world. She learned English in four months o f study and is now conversant and literate. T o say this woman is passionate about what she wants to do would be an understatement . She will be successful in her quest.

Tl)e rock is now hurtling toward that spot on the glass and its certain to shatter on impact. •

Jon Scott is vice president of agronomic services for Nicklaus Design.