2009 turfgrass management symposium a huge success

On Friday November 27, 2009 the first year students enrolled in the Turfgrass Management course at the University Of Guelph, held their annual turfgrass symposium at the Cutten Club in Guelph. The symposium theme was “Doing More with Less, Turf in Tough Times” and it was a huge success. Many people from different sectors of the turfgrass industry attended the event to hear speeches from Ron Scheidel (president of green horizons sod farms), Keith Bartlett (superintendent at St Georges golf club) and Dr. Tom Hsiang (a pathology professor at the University Of Guelph).

The day started off with a speech from Dr. Tom Hsiang about different ways to cope with the pesticide ban, and new alternatives to treating turf grass for disease and pests. He showed some results on new products he was testing out and how they were working, he also threw lots of jokes into his spceeh to keep the audience listening. The second speaker we heard from was Ron Scheidel. He talked to us about his company and some of the new things they are doing to save money in these tough times. He also told us about how some business opportunities don’t work out and how some do.  He also shared with us some facts about growing sod and how they manage the company Green Horizons Sod Farms. The third and final speaker was Keith Bartlett and he talk to us about how they were preparing St. Georges golf club for this years Canadian Open and the new renovations they were doing to the course. He also told everyone how  to save money, how to make sure to budget properly and not to construct things that are going to cost a lot of money in the long run.

The first year students in the turfgrass management program would like to thank all the people who were involved in the symposium. Big thanks go out to our three speakers Ron Scheidel, Keith Bartlett and Dr. Tom Hsiangs. The turfgrass students would also like to thank the many sponsors who donated money and door prizes for the event. Last but not least a big thank you goes out to the Cutten Club for supplying the venue for they event.

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