To serve the Emerald Coast’s golf course employees, parks and leisure services, and athletic field employees, the University of Florida/IFAS West Florida Research and Education Center will offer a course in Golf and Sports Turf Management, for spring semester 2009.
The course will begin Monday, Jan. 6, from 3:05 until 5 p.m., and will be held each Monday until the semester ends in late April. J. Bryan Unruh, Ph.D., an expert in turfgrass management, will co-instruct the course live from UF’s Milton Campus. Videoconference technology will be used to deliver the course to students throughout the state, with which students may interact with the instructors. Dr. Jason Dettman-Kruse will instruct segments about sports turf management from the Gainesville campus by videoconference.
Unruh said the course will provide attendees with strategies involved in golf course and athletic field operation including development of cultural practices, adherence to environmental regulations, personnel management and budgeting.
“The entire class will participate in a Weekend Learning Experience once during the semester,” said Unruh. “The learning experience will give all the students an opportunity to interact and work with each other on various real-world case studies. Students will also tour sports turf facilities and a golf course to observe first-hand the challenges in managing professional turf venues.”
The course format will include lecture presentations, special topics discussions, guest speakers and panel discussions. Lecture topics will include construction concepts, management of golf course turf and sports fields and drainage. Special topics will feature career ethics, controversially issues such as genetically modified turf and environmental issues. Professional golf course designers and staff agronomists from the United States Golf Association will provide guest lectures.
Unruh, Associate Professor of Environmental Horticulture at the UF Milton Campus. Dettman-Kruse is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Horticulture at the UF Gainesville Campus. Both professors teach courses in turfgrass culture and landscape and turfgrass management.
Unruh serves as an extension turf specialist and he manages a 40-acre turfgrass research and demonstration field laboratory in north Florida. Dettman-Kruse focuses his efforts on athletic turf management and serving as the coordinator for the University of Florida Golf and Sports Turf Management Program offered at the Gainesville, Ft. Lauderdale, and Milton Campuses.
To enroll in Golf and Sports Turf Management course, or for more information about UF courses and degree programs at the UF/IFAS Milton Campus, contact Kat Campbell (850) 982-5216, Ext. 109, or by e-mail at kcampbell@ufl.edu. For specific information about the golf and sports turf management course contact Dr. Bryan Unruh at (850) 995-3720, Ext. 108, or by e-mail at: jbu@ufl.edu