A show with class

Day two is wrapping up, and if it was lively Monday, it’s buzzing now. As I’m writing this, the show has opened to a flock of eager superintendents. The crowd is even larger not just because the big golf championship is over (though the weather leads me to believe there might be a few supers out there taking advantage of the Myrtle Beach courses), but because this show has so much to offer.

I’m not talking in terms of what’s being shown on the floor, though there are plenty of wonderful suppliers who know better than to miss the Carolinas, but because of what’s turned up in the seminars this year.

If you’ve been following our Twitter feed (@GCIMagazine), you’ll have seen a couple snapshots from some of the talks throughout the day. I’ve tried to get around to see what was going on in as many as I could, and I wasn’t held back just by how many there are, but by how many superintendents are in each.

Right after grabbing breakfast and checking in, all but two of the morning seminars are packed to capacity. More than 550 supers are registered, and it isn’t long before everyone is crammed into these meeting rooms to pick up the newest info to help build stronger turf. With the afternoon seminars included, the day’s total registered comes to about 1,030.

Advanced Bentgrass Greens ID and Management had a full house for Bruce Martin, Lane Tredway and Richard Latin, a strong counterargument for those on the Bermudagrass bandwagon. But supers weren’t just interested in turf wars, because another entry-level course, Soil Physics for Fun and Profit with Daniel Bowman was just as packed, though in a slightly smaller room.

The superintendent density in that particular meeting room, where Bowman stacked sponges to illustrate how water moves through soil in a green, is one of the best reasons to be excited about golf right now. Faced with a slumped economy and low rate of play, these aren’t superintendents looking for a quick fix. They’re looking for the right knowledge to put the best improvements into play for their courses.

I can’t tell the number of times I’ve been around the floor today talking to supers asking what they’re at the show for, and getting, “Oh, I’m here to learn about…” And at this point in our industry, that’s exactly what we want to hear.