A good time to be early

I’m not particularly known for being early to events. But I’m glad I caught the Sunday flight down to the Carolinas GCSA Conference, and not just because of my wildly entertaining rowmates on the plane.

The show floor is still under construction, but superintendents were gathered from all over to pick up on some of the newest info around for the Monday afternoon seminars. There were plenty around to hit the Net with John Kaminski and Lane Tredway’s Blogging and the Use of Social Media class, and Rick Latin’s Understanding Turfgrass Fungicides had solid numbers as well – so great to hear so many supers are going back to basics to build a great stand of turf.

Just shy of 250 superintendents were registered for these early sessions. That’s even more astounding when the golf championship was vying for their attention at the same time and pulled about 320 players away from their studies.

But the lion’s share of those assiduous supers, about 93, were crammed into the Advanced Disease Identification and Management of Bermudagrass Greens course with Bruce Martin, Phil Harmon and Christina Wells. When I worked my way into the seminar, there were barely seats left – not long after, it was standing-room only.

I haven’t seen a room full of turfheads so intent on their subject since the C-5 meeting – a gathering of some of the biggest names in soil science – last month when they were discussing the true identity of dollar spot. Superintendents weren’t just looking for the next bit of education to fill a credit: They were asking questions because they wanted to know. And they wanted to know because more and more superintendents are making the switch from bentgrass to that temperate-region-weather-loving Bermudagrass and ultradwarf.

“I’m trying to find out more about this for next season,” said one North Carolina super near me, “I already know about bentgrass and I’m sick of getting beat up on that every year.” Judging from that room, he's not alone.

And while there are plenty of supers signed up for Tuesday’s bentgrass seminar, my guess is that next year’s Bermudagrass seminar will be even bigger. These supers aren’t just early to the show. They’re early to catching on to the next big change for temperate-region golf.