Penn State Turfgrass Science Students took first in both the 4-year and 2-year division in the 6th Annual STMA Student Challenge in Orlando. The awards are presented in partnership with the SAFE Foundation and Hunter Industries. Hunter's continued sponsorship picks up the tab for all Student Challenge competitors' Conference registration.
Waiting out a frost delay didn't damper the enthusiasm of participants in the annual SAFE Jacobsen Golf Tournament, held this year at Greg Norman's ChampionsGate Club National Course in Orlando as part of the 21st STMA Conference & Exhibition.
Turface Athletics, an industry leader in sports field conditioners, has launched a new website specific to their products, www.turface.com. The site is part of a continued effort to provide the best educational information and solutions for professionals and volunteers caring for infields and sports turf.
Here is a blog from Sports Illustrated writer Joe Posnanski that details the talk he gave as the keynote speaker at the STMA Conference in Orlando 2 weeks ago.
Tom Burns of Diamond Pro/TXI, former groundskeeper for the Texas Rangers, was presented with the Harry C. Gill Memorial Award at the STMA Conference Banquet January 15. This is the most prestigious of the Four Founders Awards bestowed by the organization each year.
The Motz Group has purchased the assets of U.S. Greentech, LLC, acquiring the intellectual property rights for coating and pigmenting silica sand for use as a turf infill. The subsequent takeover of All Sports Surfaces LLC secured exclusive ownership to an innovative alternative infill.
With thousands of sports fields installed each year throughout the world, the synthetic turf industry has gained acceptance due to the benefits of longer playing hours, maintenance savings and all-weather playability. Buyer demands have also increased with trends towards replicating natural grass in more ways than just appearance or shock absorption.
FieldTurf is now guaranteeing a 9-lb. tuft bind on its artificial grass products, the only company in the industry to do so. This level of quality is achieved through the company's ability to coat and inspect its own products internally. FieldTurf remains the only company in the industry to control all aspects of the manufacturing process.
The sports turf management intern will assist in all aspects of maintaining a baseball field to professional standards. The intern will be one of the only three full time employees on the grounds staff. Due to the limited size of our crew, the intern will be trained to perform all tasks associated with field care and will shoulder much of the responsibility in maintaining stadium to the high standards we expect.
During a recent trip to a school soccer field, I made a recommendation to start topdressing with a sand:organic mix. During field construction, the topsoil had been removed from the field and the clay-loam that was left was so compacted that grass cover was very poor and the surface was extremely hard.
