I saw five women walk mowing tees on a pair of idyllic Ontario mornings in August. I saw two more women mowing tees before noticing two women who looked the same – they were identical twins – mowing collars as a woman operating a triplex zoomed past me.

I never thought much of it. I then returned to the United States and haven’t stopped thinking about what I witnessed while visiting Magna Golf Club for the third part of the “Our Major” series (pages 54-57).

The CP Women’s Open, a LPGA event contested at Magna, a magnificent private course north of Toronto, boasted a field of the world’s best female players. One of North America’s most inclusive maintenance teams prepared the course for professionals from 26 countries.

Besides affable players who lauded the fellow women they spotted mowing playing surfaces, nobody on the course before dawn found the presence of all-female mowing crews unusual. Efficient, determined and enthusiastic women are omnipresent at Magna. Superintendent Wayne Rath says he once considered swapping the female and male locker rooms, because he thought women might eventually outnumber men on the 50-worker crew. This year’s peak-season team included 15 female employees, most of whom found fulfilling summer work between school semesters. “There’s nothing any of these girls can’t do that the guys do,” Rath says.

Next year’s crew should include a significant female presence. Seasonal employees return to Magna for second, third and even fourth summers. A few employees might bring along a family member or friend. Magna had two sets of sisters on its 2019 summer crew, including twins Alyssa and Michaela Point.

Magna’s female workers have a manager who can relate to what they might be experiencing. Kendra Kiss, a spray technician who also meticulously handles administrative duties, started working on an Alberta course as a 19-year-old. She admits to being initially overwhelmed by an environment where workers use complex equipment to meet high expectations. Now an industry veteran, Kiss collaborates with Rath and assistant superintendent Terry Magee to ensure new employees of both genders receive significant training and mentorship. “I try to help them as much as I can, because I know how intimidating it can be walking into a golf course and not understanding something,” Kiss says.

Coaching and care yield a significant reward for managers. Young employees who experience a positive first season are more apt to become loyal, which isn’t always the case in summer labor markets with more available jobs than reliable employees. Working outdoors for supportive bosses convinced Alyssa and Michaela Point to spend four summers at Magna between semesters at Brock University.

“We are always asking questions,” Michaela says. “We are just never doing something to do it. We want to know why we are doing stuff. There’s a reason behind everything we do here.”

Their CP Women’s Open week assignment involved hand mowing collars. It’s likely the first time in LPGA history twin sisters mowed tournament bentgrass together. “When we came here and heard that the girls do all the same stuff that the guys do, it made us feel useful,” Alyssa says. “It felt nice to know that we were actually doing something and not just being given some odd jobs.”

Associations and companies are investing considerable time and resources into promoting and helping expand opportunities for women in turf, especially at the managerial levels. Their efforts should be lauded. But summer visits to Magna and Hamilton Golf and Country Club, the fabulous RBC Canadian Open site with a diverse crew featured in Part 1 of the “Our Major” series, demonstrated what conference room chatter can’t replicate.

Supportive managers with structured training programs will make golf course maintenance an attractive job for all employees. Listening, answering, demonstrating, empowering and caring are universal practices. There shouldn’t be anything unusual about seeing what happens when they are implemented.

When battery-powered golf cars suffer from intermittent performance issues, one of the most common reasons for this is poor battery cable connections. Ironically, loose connections can be caused by both under-tightening and over-tightening of the battery terminal connectors, as well as corrosion that can occur over time. Deep-cycle battery terminals are made from lead which is a soft metal that creeps over time. The result is that they must be retightened regularly to maintain proper torque levels. If too much torque is applied when attaching cables to battery terminals, however, it can cause damage to the lead terminals preventing them from making a proper connection. Battery manufacturers recommend terminal torque specifications that vary with the different types of terminals used for deep-cycle batteries.

Deep cycle batteries can come with UTL, UT, large and small L, Offset S, and SAE tapered post terminals, among others. For UTL and UT battery terminals with threaded studs, the recommended torque is 95 – 105 in-lb. (7.9 - 8.8 ft-lb.). For bolt-thru terminals such as large and small L and Offset S, the recommended torque is 100-120 in-lb. (8.3 - 10 ft-lb). SAE terminals have a recommended terminal torque of 50-70 in-lb. (4.2 to 5.8 ft-lb.). For other terminal types, consult the battery manufacturer’s recommendations. When measuring terminal torque, use a torque wrench with settings or readings in the 0 – 200 in-lb. (0 – 16 ft-lb.) range. Larger torque wrenches can inadvertently exceed the recommended settings or readings.

It is also important to consult the battery manufacturer’s recommendations for the proper type and assembly of the terminal hardware. Most manufacturers provide stainless steel nuts and lock washers or plated bolts, nuts, and lock washers with the batteries depending on the type of terminal used. The correct method is to position a lock washer between the nut and the connector (never between the connector and the lead terminal) and apply the recommended torque to completely compress the lock washer without deforming the lead terminal.

Clean terminals will also maintain the best connection so if corrosion is observed on the battery terminals and connectors, they should be cleaned with a wire brush and a solution of baking soda and water to neutralize any electrolyte that may be on the surfaces. To reduce the formation of corrosion on the terminals, battery manufacturers recommend using a corrosion inhibitor after making proper connections. Never apply grease or other lubricants between the terminals and connectors since they can interfere with the connection.

Check the cables to determine if they are corroded and need to be replaced. Corrosion can extend under the cable insulation but is often not visible. A good tug on the cables can expose weak connections. If new cables or connectors were added during the life of the vehicle, make sure the wire connectors are properly crimped and soldered to the cable ends. Studies have shown that wire cables with crimped connectors that are not soldered to the cable ends, can corrode faster and create a high resistance connection between the wire cable and crimped connector. This high resistance can cause excessive heating during discharge and melt the lead terminal causing a loss of connection and permanent damage to the battery. If any of the cables show signs of melted insulation, corrosion under the insulation, or have bare wire showing, replace the cables and connectors.

While faulty connections are often the cause of battery terminal meltdowns, using properly sized wires, crimped and soldered connectors, and tightening them to the recommended torque settings, will reduce the chances that poor connections will adversely affect battery performance. For additional information on battery terminal types, terminal torque and connection hardware specifications, and proper maintenance of deep cycle batteries visit www.usbattery.com.

(Editor’s Note: This year, BASF and GCI are working together to tell the story of how a new active ingredient is coming to life for the golf market. The idea is to help you learn the scope of the R&D, testing, investment and plain hard work that goes on behind the scenes of product development. The formulations reached the golf market earlier this year. This is part 4 of a 4-part series on the remarkable process of bringing new chemistry to your golf course.)

After years of preparation and testing, and no small amount of anticipation, superintendents are now able to make Revysol a part of their fungicide regimens.

Developed by BASF, the active ingredient mefentrifluconazole may now be used in the field, either as a standalone (brand name: Maxtima® fungicide) or in a compound with Insignia® (brand name: Navicon® Intrinsic® brand fungicide).

Whether as a standalone or as part of a compound, superintendents are eagerly anticipating having another weapon in their arsenal in their ongoing battle against dollar spot.

Scott Bosetti is the superintendent at White Beeches Golf and Country Club in Haworth, N.J. The 18-hole private facility is located 20 miles northwest of midtown Manhattan.

Bosetti started working on golf courses a quarter century ago. He’s spent 18 years as a superintendent, 13 of them at White Beeches where he has been regularly plagued by dollar spot issues — issues that have become more problematic in recent seasons because of wet, humid weather. He seized on the opportunity to try Maxtima when it became available this summer.

“The ability to throw a DMI chemistry out in the middle of the summer was very appealing,” Bosetti says. “Once the heart of the year gets to us, we’re kind of handcuffed. There is a just a certain amount of different types of products/chemistries that we can use, so being able to throw a new chemistry out there in the middle of the summer was something that really interested me.”

Bosetti put down an application of Maxtima in late July at a rate of 0.4 oz./1,000 square feet. When he spoke with Golf Course Industry, he had effectively received 21 days of dollar-spot control from the application.

While making the Maxtima fungicide application, Bosetti simultaneously applied Primo Maxx as a growth regulator. I’m mostly Poa annua here,” he says, “and you’re always worried about throwing a growth regulator in with a DMI, no matter what time of year it is.”

But Bosetti was assured by BASF representative Paul Ramina that the growth regulator would not cause a problem. “He told me, with all the research they’ve done, either on other golf courses, or at Rutgers, it had no effect on it.” Bosetti recalls, “so I went out with an 11-oz.-per-acre rate of Primo and got no yellowing, no nothing.”

Tim White is in charge of the turf at Prestwick Country Club in Frankfort, Ill., roughly 35 miles south of Chicago. The 18-hole private club features a Larry Packard-designed golf course that was completed in 1964.

When White arrived at the club in 2005, he found himself facing dollar-spot issues that were exacerbated by resistance issues related to DMI-based chemistries that were used by his predecessor to the point where White was getting no more than 10 days of control per dollar spot application (White is quick to point out that those chemistries were state-of-the-art at the time his predecessor applied them).

White found that Emerald was effective against dollar spot; at one point, he was getting 40-plus days of control. Fifteen years later, he embraced the opportunity to have history repeat itself, this time with Maxtima fungicide. “I just thought the product sounded interesting,” he says. “I saw some of the research numbers online and our sales professional (Andy Morris) got us a trial sample.”

On Aug. 6, White applied Maxtima on one of his fairways. “We picked a hole that we knew had previous issues with dollar spot,” he says. “We also picked this hole because it has a fair amount of Poa trivialis in the fairway, especially on some of the fairway edges.”

The fairway in question also had summer-patch issues. Within six days, though, the dollar spot on the trial fairway was gone — and within a week, the summer patch was all but gone, White says. Twenty-one days later, the summer patch had not returned, he adds.

Two Michigan-based superintendents are hoping to achieve similar results with Maxtima fungicide that Bosetti and White have attained.

Jeff Holmes is the longtime director of agronomy at Egypt Valley Country Club, a private facility in Ada, an eastern suburb of Grand Rapids. He’s been at the club for 25 years and has worked in the turf industry for 34. He spoke with Golf Course Industry the same week he put down an application of Maxtima.

Holmes had bigger problems with dollar spot in 2018 than he did this season. He believes the weather was a factor, noting that in recent seasons he has found himself applying fungicide more frequently than in years past. Ideally, he’d like to apply a fungicide on a monthly basis, but circumstances don’t always allow for that.

“I think our durations are shorter,” he says, “but it’s really hard (to determine) unless you have a checkplot and are going year to year. Sometimes, a certain product will work one year and the next year it doesn’t work quite as well, so I really think a lot of it is weather-driven, but I do feel that the durations are a little shorter than what they were.

“We’ve had products that have gone 28 days and longer and we’ve had products that have lasted eight days, and sometimes that same product worked three months earlier or the year before,” he adds. “That’s why I say sometimes it’s just the climate and the conditions and not knowing if the pathogen is already in the plant and how we’re affecting it. There are a lot of variables.”

Tom Schall has worked in the turf industry for more than three decades. Today, he’s in charge of the turf at the Oakland University Golf and Learning Center in Rochester, Mich. The center features two 18-hole courses plus a state-of-the-art practice area.

When Golf Course Industry spoke with Schall, he was preparing to apply Maxtima for the first time; the application was tentatively scheduled for the end of August. He is hoping that Maxtima will prove an effective remedy for the dollar spot issues that have plagued him in recent seasons “I’m not getting the length of control that we were used to,” he says. “Two weeks is almost unheard of anymore.”

Schall says early season rains exacerbated the dollar spot issues he’s been dealing with this summer. “Normally, what we do is put an application down for dollar spot earlier in the spring as a (preventative measure),” he says, “and we just didn’t have that availability to do that this year with the rain. I think that’s one of the reasons we’re having this problem.”

Apart from its effectiveness against dollar spot and other diseases, early indications are that Maxtima fungicide offers financial benefits. Bosetti estimates that his 21 days of dollar spot control cost him approximately $100 per acre. And longer intervals between applications allow superintendents to devote labor to other tasks. “(Maxtima fungicide) is going to allow us to move people to do other things in the fall,” Schall says, “and not have to put so much time into making a fungicide application. We’ve got a couple of renovation projects going on too. Whenever you’re doing a project, things come up and you have to move people around, so it’s going to help us be able to do that.”

White is already thinking about 2020 and how he’ll integrate Maxtima into his fungicide protocol. He anticipates making an application somewhere around May 1.

“We’re going to give it a whirl for sure on our tees next year,” he says. “We’re going to do an early season app for dollar spot reduction, summer patch and take all patch. I’m assuming on our tees we should get at least a month out of that, maybe longer, for dollar spot. We’ll probably do a fall clean-up on the tees also for dollar spot.”

White is also planning to try Navicon Intrinsic on greens.

“Historically, we get a couple applications during the summer months of an Insignia product,” he says. “Whether it’s Lexicon, or Honor, or Insignia, there are plant-health based benefits, there’s no doubt about it.”

White believes that utilizing Insignia has contributed to making his turf more stress resistant.

“When you make an application prior to a stretch of (90-degree days) that roll in and sticky nights, we just noticed that the grass responds better than it does when we’re not using the products,” he says. “We’re using less water, there’s less stress, the plant seems to have an ability to just handle the stress much better … the plant just seems to be a little bit tougher, a little bit stronger.

“I don’t have numbers to back that up, but based on previous years when we didn’t use any of it versus years when we have, it just seems like the plant can go through those periods of warm, humid days and sticky nights with less decline.”

White believes that dollar spot is becoming less of an issue than previous years because of the introduction of new products. But it’s safe to say that it will always be a concern for turf professionals. With Maxtima fungicide and Navicon Intrinsic brand fungicide now available, they have two new tools at their disposal.

Note: Any sales of the products after registration is obtained shall be solely on the basis of the EPA-approved label, and any claims regarding product safety and efficacy shall be addressed solely by the label.

The 14th hole at Magna Golf Club slithers west and gradually descends from tee to green, offering views of modern mansions dotted across the Oak Ridges Moraine. Residents are within commuting distance of a global commerce center, yet the 30-mile separation between their community — Aurora, Ontario — and Toronto means escapism from tussles for living and recreation space.

Courses such as Magna in places such as Aurora were built to provide enthralling escapism. The sensation permeates near the 14th tee box on a comfortable late-summer morning. The sun lifts, creating a collection of colors — blue, white, orange and yellow with drops of red and purple — directing eyes focused on defined tasks upward. A colorful sky makes one forget artistic eye-level hues: swaths of verdant bentgrass, blends of bluegrass and ryegrass, and fiery fescue.

Magna International, a global automotive supplier founded by businessman Frank Stronach, owns the exclusive private club. Corporate offices are adjacent to the second hole, a par-3 playing over water. The second hole, like the 14th, offers abundant color and visual inspiration.

Outsiders experienced the escapism this past summer as the volume of activity at Magna escalated Aug. 19-25, when the club opened its gates for the CP Women’s Open, the only Canadian event on the LPGA schedule. The presence of LPGA players, including homegrown megastar Brooke Henderson, and fans provided escapism from regular maintenance for the unique crew assembled by longtime superintendent Wayne Rath. While numerous grandiose clubs are tournament mainstays, 18-year-old Magna existed as a secluded recreational haven for its members and guests.

“At first, I didn’t even know Magna had a golf course,” veteran crew member Austin Muongchanh says. “My parents had been working in a Magna plant for over 20 years and they didn’t even know Magna had a golf course.”

When Golf Canada announced Magna as the 2019 site for one of its signature events – the organization also stages the PGA Tour’s RBC Canadian Open — it surprised many Canadian golf enthusiasts who figured the club preferred operating outside the limelight. Rath and senior assistant superintendent Terry Magee emphasize a culture of excellence in discussions and demonstrations to a 50-worker crew. They just never envisioned melding excellence with bleachers, ropes and global television coverage.

Rath started his relationship with Magna via turfgrass management reports he conducted as part of the permitting process in the late 1990s. He served as the project manager during construction and remained with the club as superintendent. Rath spent 10 years as the superintendent at Toronto’s Islington Golf Club before his involvement with Magna. A superintendent since age 25, Rath had never led a team responsible for hosting a televised tournament until the CP Women’s Open.

“For a lot of our staff, it’s the only time they are going to ever to do this,” he says. “It’s probably going to be the only time the golf course ever does this. The stars lined up with the properties around our property for support. That might not happen ever again.”

Rath’s team received a little more than 13 months to prepare for the event, as Golf Canada announced Magna as the 2019 tournament site on July 9, 2018. The opportunity to work the CP Women’s Open represented one reason Shaemos Campbell left a job he enjoyed at nearby Pheasant Run Golf Club for a technician position at Magna. Early in his Magna tenure last fall, Campbell observed the tidying of phragmites near a pond on the first hole. “I was like, ‘OK, this is a bigger venture than you think,’” says Campbell, who was raised on a farm in Uxbridge, a rural community less than 20 miles from Aurora. “You don’t want to be rushing around at the end.”

Beyond timing fertility and spray programs around the tournament, Rath downplays how the event changed 2019 expectations. His team, after all, has provided tournament-caliber conditions since the course opened. Until the CP Women’s Open, the 2013 PGA Championship of Canada represented the biggest outside event hosted by the club. The event featured a match-play format, lacked live television coverage and Rath’s team prepared the course for just two competitors on the final day. “It was a good event, but it was a small event,” he says. “The spectators were family and friends.”

Seeing Henderson, who won her first major as an 18-year-old, appear at Magna for a pre-tournament media day July 2 elevated internal buzz for the CP Women’s Open. Employees then received daily reminders of an altered workspace as contractors started building grandstands and fan zones around the 17th and 18th greens.

The scene stunned seasonal employee Alyssa Point when she returned to Magna during an August break from school. “They were setting stuff up and I was like, ‘What the heck is this?’” Point says. But the crew quickly adapted to the advance and tournament-week hustle. The LPGA reserved Tuesday for full-field practice rounds and Magna’s televised tournament rookies had all playing surfaces mowed by 7:15 a.m. Rath offered succinct messages to employees in a pre-shift meeting: repeat Monday’s efficient performance, don’t fret when players aren’t putting to cups and avoid giving rides to spectators or non-turf volunteers.

“I have always believed you treat people the way you want to be treated in this business,” Rath says. “When you’re outside, you can’t make people do a good job for you. You have to give them the energy, you have to give them the resources, you have to give them the knowledge and the inspiration to do a good job for you, and that’s what we are seeing this week. This is just the culmination of all the effort and everything they have learned. Everything they have been trained to do … I think we’re reaping the rewards right now.”

Kendra Kiss qualified as the lone veteran of the multi-shift tournament circuit when the week started. Kiss, an enthusiastic, determined and knowledgeable spray technician/administrative assistant who has spent a decade as one of Rath’s confidants, had volunteered for a pair of Waste Management Phoenix Opens at TPC Scottsdale. Hosting the CP Women’s represented a highly personal career highlight for Kiss, who helps hire and train a diverse crew. “We definitely make sure we spend the time with people, making sure they are comfortable and not just being thrown into the fire,” she says.

Rath proudly notes his team includes energetic employees in their teens, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. Nearly a third of the crew is female. Magna’s maintenance facility includes locker rooms for both genders and female employees handled every CP Women’s Open hand-mowing assignment.

The presence of all-female mowing teams surprised — and subsequently inspired — athletes representing one of the world’s more diverse sports organizations. LPGA players frequently chatted with crew members during practice arounds and pro-ams.

“We had players stop us and ask, ‘Are all of you cutting?’” says Michaela Point, who split morning collar-mowing duties with her twin sister, Alyssa. Michaela adds, “It’s probably nice for them to see that, because they aren’t used to seeing so many girls cutting.”

This past summer likely represented the final season the sisters will work on a golf course. Alyssa and Michaela, recent graduates of Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, are pursuing careers in massage therapy and dermatology, respectively. Their long-term memories of Magna should be pleasant. The duo spent their childhood and college years playing soccer and running track and cross country. Golf course maintenance fulfilled intangible benefits they wanted from a summer job: a chance to move around and moments of solitude. They also absorbed a few enduring lessons while averaging 20,000 steps per day mowing bentgrass. “I have learned a lot about work ethic through this job,” Michaela says. “I didn’t realize how good of a worker I was. Wayne and Terry wanted to have us back each summer. It’s good to see that hard work does pay off.”

Turfgrass maintenance is set to become Nichole Parker’s chosen field, thus her decision to immerse herself in CP Women’s Open week by working morning and evening shifts. Grueling days are the norm for Parker. She worked a pair of industry jobs at contrasting facilities this past summer: maintenance at Magna and operations at public Bushwood Golf Club. At 23, Parker is the same age as Henderson, one of her nation’s more celebrated athletes.

Two jobs are a necessity, because Parker is paying her way through turfgrass management classes at Penn State World Campus. A quartet of fascinating summers at Magna convinced Parker, who earned a two-year landscape management diploma from Seneca College, to pursue turf instead of a career in landscape and horticulture. Despite an active childhood and having a grandfather who holds ownership shares in a public golf course, Parker had never stepped foot on a course until arriving at Magna.

“The most interesting thing about turf is the machinery and the different jobs that you can do within it,” she says. “I like being busy. If they would let me work for 10 hours, I would go out there and work for 10 hours and not say anything. I can’t stand places where it’s like, ‘OK, we have a job for you and it’s going to take an hour and you’re going to twiddle your thumbs for a bit.’ There’s so much to do here.”

From helping execute spray programs to integrating Magna International’s structured employee hiring, training and safety programs into the club’s turf department, constant communication and motion turn many of Kiss’s workdays into sprints. Her path to playing a key part in hosting one of her country’s bigger sporting events started nearly 2,200 miles from Magna. A Calgary native, Kiss relished hiking in Alberta’s scenic mountains as a child and a maintenance position at Kananaskis Country Golf Course satisfied a desire to work outdoors.

Her career commenced at Kananaskis in 2001. Eighteen years later, at 5:30 on a comfortable Tuesday morning in August, Kiss sprayed a putting green surrounded by 26 flags representing the nations of the 156 CP Women’s Open participants. The field included 15 players from her own country, many of whom galloped and gawked when they reached the 14th hole.

“I have put a lot of heart and soul into this place and I really love being here,” she says. “To be able to showcase the golf course on a world stage is amazing. It’s definitely a pride thing for us. We’re showcasing the greenkeeping side of what we do.”