Golfdom Earns 9 Editorial Excellence Awards from the Turf & Ornamental Communicators Association

Cleveland, OH -- May 16, 2013 -- North Coast Media is pleased to announce Golfdom continues to be recognized for its outstanding editorial leadership and design by the Turf & Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) earning nine honors at TOCA's annual awards ceremony held last week in Portland, Ore. Sister publication Landscape Management (LM) nabbed eight awards. North Coast Media once again led all publishing companies that competed for TOCA awards in the golf and landscape markets with 17 awards.

Golfdom won TOCA awards for:

Photography, Portrait/Personality -- "Like Father, Unlike Son"
Pictorial 1 (photo of golf course, park, sports field or any commercial or community area) -- "Healing Power"
Printed Magazines: Singe Page Design/Editorial -- "Golfdom Gallery"
New Media, Blogs --"The Golfdom Daily"
Writing, Commercial Publications, Column -- "A Course Built on Sacred Ground"
Writing, Commercial Publications, Turf Feature Article -- "All Zoyias are Not Created Equal"
Writing, Commercial Publications, Product Information Article -- "Enemy at the Gates"
Writing, Commercial Publications, Business Management -- "The Guy's Got Guts (and Goats!)"
Writing, Commercial Publications, Headline Writing -- "The Guy's Got Guts (and Goats!)"

"We had a very strong showing at TOCA once again this year," said Kevin Stoltman, president and CEO of North Coast Media. "This recognition validates the hard work of our editorial team, led by Seth Jones, who is so dedicated to delivering superintendents must-read resources."

Matt Shaffer on U.S. Open conditions

Matt Shaffer discusses the arrival of the 2013 U.S. Open, the weather leading up to the event, and what players will get when they find their ball in Merion's rough (Here's a hint: it won't be perfect). Look for part two in the next few weeks...

Happy first anniversary, North Coast Media!

If you missed getting a card in the mail, that's OK — it snuck up on us, too.

North Coast Media celebrated its first anniversary recently. The Cleveland-based publishing company publishes Golfdom as well as Landscape Management, Pest Management Professional, Pit and Quarry, LP Gas and GPS World, and in my opinion it's about the friendliest group of journalists and designers you'll ever meet.

So if you need a reason to celebrate on a Monday... well, here you go. Happy anniversary, NCM!

Sunny days in Portland

Great to see my old friend Brian Koffler, superintendent at Waverley CC here in Portland. BK has the course looking great... I got some good photos I'll post soon...

Bayer CropScience Accepting Applications for the Healthy Turf, Healthy Tomorrow Plant Health Academy

A little late to this one today as I was on the golf course all morning... but here ya go:

Environmental Science, a division of Bayer CropScience, today announced that it is accepting applications from GCSAA Class A and superintendent members through June 5 for the inaugural Healthy Turf, Healthy Tomorrow Plant Health Academy. The Academy is the first of four Healthy Turf, Healthy Tomorrow educational opportunities available to superintendents since Bayer launched the program in collaboration with the GCSAA’s Environmental Institute for Golf (EIFG) earlier this year.

The Academy’s two-part immersive plant health curriculum will involve in-the-field training at the Bayer Training and Development Center in Clayton, N.C. (September 25-27), and classroom training at GCSAA headquarters in Lawrence, Kan. (March 3-5, 2014). Twelve GCSAA members will be selected based on merit to participate in the Academy, with travel, accommodations and meals paid for by the Healthy Turf, Healthy Tomorrow program.

Thoughts from 30,000 feet

A little bit of this and that as I make my way out west for the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association annual meeting...

One of the massive bunkers on the Doak 18 at Streamsong.

• First, some good news. We set another personal record here at the Golfdom Daily last month. In March we had our best month ever in terms of visits in a single month. That was very exciting. But that record didn't last long. The very next month we blew our one-month record away by 2,000 hits in April. ...So thanks to the thousands who stopped by the blog to see what we had cooking in April. In case you're curios, this post featuring photos of the crew getting work done at Augusta National led the way and became the most viewed page in the blog's six-year history.
• I heard the sad news of Stan George's passing while I was in Florida last week. Stan was the CGCS at Prairie Dunes CC in Hutchinson, Kan. I had the pleasure of meeting Stan back in 2002 when I did a cover story on the course in anticipation of them hosting the U.S. Women's Open. From that point on Stan was always a trusted colleague and friend in the industry. Not that it does much good, but our condolences here at Golfdom go out to Stan's family and friends.
• I'm on the last leg of six trips in four weeks now, as I head out to the TOCA meeting. I'm excited to be returning to Portland, Ore., where I last visited just a few months ago when I spoke at the NW Golf and Environmental meeting. No alt-rock concerts this time (caught the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion show last time, dragging architect Andy Staples with me) but I am happy to see a recent report on CNN that named Portland the No. 1 beer city in America.
• Last week's trip to Florida ended well, as I wrapped it up with visits to Reunion Resort and CC of Orlando. I spoke at the Calusa/Sun Coast GCSA chapter meeting at Coral Creek Club in Placida. The speech went well, I'd say, but my golf round was beyond lousy... which, as Jackson mentioned here on the blog, was even tougher when you consider that I was playing with a 0, a 3 and a 4. Oof! We're playing in Portland this week... it has to get better, right?
• More updates coming this week from Portland, especially in regards to the TOCA awards ceremony, which takes place Thursday night. Fingers crossed that it goes well for us. Although I can tell you right now that whatever we do this year, 2013 is going to be even better. And if you see misspellings on Thursday night, please excuse me, but remember: it is the No. 1 beer city in the U.S.A...

A visit to CC of Orlando

I'm back from a week in overcast, rainy Florida. Back in Kansas, where it was snowing on May 2nd, when my flight landed last night (sheesh!)

My last stop was at CC of Orlando, to visit my old friend Kasey Kauff, who became the superintendent of the course a few months ago. The last time I saw Kasey was at the 2011 PGA Championship, when he was working at Atlanta Athletic Club.

Here are a couple pics of Kasey, the course, and the huge trees they have out there at CCO. It's an old Donald Ross course with some really beautiful views.

The last photo, that tree is 600 years old, and they call it Willie Mays, because it catches everything. It's proudly standing near the landing area of a turn on a dogleg right, of course.

Thanks to Kasey for showing me around the course!