With all the great classes, exhibits, and things to do and see, the GCSAA Conference and Trade Show in Orlando had enough to keep everyone very busy. It was also particularly important for the USGA since this was our first year as a presenting partner and we were officially launching the new GS3. We also hosted a USGA Green Section event where over 170 industry colleagues joined us for drinks, dinner and some interesting and informative discussions.
Hopefully you made it to the show and were able to decompress a little from day-to-day operations, get together with colleagues that you don’t see regularly and make some new acquaintances. There was also a wide variety of classes available and plenty of new equipment and technology to see on the trade show floor. We hope you also had some time to stop by the USGA booth, meet with our team and learn about the GS3.
For those that are not familiar with the GS3, it uses state-of-the-art technology to calculate putting green speed, firmness, smoothness and trueness and it is integrated with the USGA’s DEACON platform for easy data collection and analysis.
The quality of the educational offerings was extremely high this year and included talks by USGA Green Section staff members on championship preparation, water conservation, data collection, labor issues, golf course renovations, improved teeing options, bunkers and fairway regrassing. This reinforces the diversity of information available from the Green Section. Please reach out to your local USGA agronomist if you were unable to attend the show and would like more information on any of the above topics, or would like to discuss an issue you are currently dealing with at your facility.
Southeast Region Agronomists:
Chris Hartwiger, director, Agronomy – chartwiger@usga.org
Jordan Booth, Ph.D., director, USGA Course Consulting Service – jbooth@usga.org
John Rowland, Ph.D., agronomist – jrowland@usga.org