GCSAA Podcast
The official podcast of the Golf Course Superintendent Association of America turns a spotlight on the stories of GCSAA's members and the vital role they play in the game of golf's overall success. The podcast is also a vehicle to showcase association products and services that can help members do their jobs better, faster and more cost-effectively.
GCSAA Podcast
65. Boots on the ground: A conversation with Envu’s Todd Lowe
In this episode of the GCSAA Podcast, we sit down with Todd Lowe, a former USGA agronomist who now is part of Envu’s Green Solutions Team. Lowe provides great insights into the El Niño weather pattern that was so nettlesome for golf course superintendents in Florida this past spring and whose effects are still being felt. Lowe shares his personal journey within the golf industry, from early days working with his father to his academic pursuits and various career transitions. He also provides some insight into his role with Envu and the kind of assistance he can provide for turfgrass managers, particularly in the Sunshine State.
The GCSAA Podcast is presented in partnership with Envu.
Hi everybody and welcome to another episode of the GCSA podcast presented in partnership with Enview. I'm your host, scott Hollister, and I'm happy to have you with us. Well, as I just mentioned, and as you probably already knew, we've been lucky to have the support of Enview in the production of this podcast every month, and that partnership allows us access to some of the really smart people working for the company as guests on the podcast, and that is the case for Episode 65, as we sit down for a chat with Todd Lowe. Todd is a member of Enview's Green Solutions team serving golf course superintendents in the state of Florida, and you likely also remember him as a longtime regional agronomist for the USGA Green section. Todd had some great insights for us on the recent El Nino weather pattern that caused all kinds of problems for superintendents in the Sunshine State, and a bit of a status report on where things stand now, as well as some insights on his role with Enview and the kind of assistance he can provide to turfgrass managers in that role. It was a fun conversation that I think you'll enjoy.
Speaker 1:It's Enview's Todd Lowe on this episode of the GCSA podcast. A quick reminder that you have options when it comes to consuming the GCSA podcast. There is, of course, the traditional audio version available wherever you get your podcast, but we also have video versions available on GCSA's YouTube channel as well as on GCSA TV. So, whatever your preferred method, we have you covered. So please check those out, subscribe if you haven't already, and rate and review us. If the spirit moves you With that, let's go.
Speaker 1:This is episode 65 of the GCSAA podcast, featuring Enview Green Solutions team specialist, todd Lowe. Hope you enjoy. Well, since we started this podcast I think back in 2018, we've been lucky enough to have the support of First Bear and now Enview in all that we're doing here with the GCSA podcast and, among other things, that's given us awesome access to some really smart, talented, fun people to kind of take their temperature on what's happening in the industry, what's happening with Enview and what's happening with some of the new products that they're bringing to market for golf course superintendents, and that certainly. All those things certainly match our guest today, todd Lowe. Todd is a green solutions team specialist with Enview focuses on the state of Florida. He's a former regional USGA agronomist for the green section, longtime GCSA member, and I know you've done some work with Audubon as well, helping superintendents prepare their facilities to get certified in the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program. So Todd Lowe, our guest today. Todd, how are you doing? Doing great Scott.
Speaker 2:Appreciate it. I'm not sure about smart or talented, but I'll try to be.
Speaker 1:Well, I was told to say that I'm sure that you can talk to your fellow Green Solutions team members about. You can argue about that in the next staff meeting, I guess. So I want to, just for the listeners' sake. You know, todd and I are going to talk a little bit about his career in golf, a little bit about the Green solutions team, what they do. We'll get into a little bit of the company and some of these products that that the company is is bringing to market and featured prominently at the recent conference and trade show in Phoenix. And we'll also talk a little current events.
Speaker 1:And I kind of want to start there, todd, because unfortunately your state of the state of Florida was kind of in the crosshairs of one of the biggest stories in golf course management to start 2024. And that was El Nino. And as a point of reference, we're recording this in early April. At this point, fortunately, most superintendents and most golf courses are getting into some more seasonal weather and conditions are improving. But I want to go back and maybe just to start tell us, you know, from your perspective in Florida, what does El Nino mean and what was the impact that it had on golf courses in the state as we rolled into this new year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you bet. I think for folks in other regions it's just a word. I mean you know it's or you know some might look at it. Oh, you know it's an excuse to whatever, but for us it's a huge problem. I remember, so I was with the USGA green section from 2000 to 2018. Well, when I joined in 2000, we were fresh-ish, coming off of the El Nino from 98. And I worked under John Foy, who's just a great agronomist, great gentleman for the industry, and I remember doing visits, probably for five years or even more, where you visit superintendents and they said you know, todd appreciated what John Foy did for us in 98. They had fears of losing their job.
Speaker 2:And basically, you know that El Nino is that. You know it's that weather pattern coming from the equatorial Pacific that brings that weather conditions for us generally cooler wetter. And you hear that and you go well, I mean, come on, cooler wetter. But for us it wasn't as cooler, but we certainly were a lot wetter. So not just having wetter conditions, which are more conducive for a lot of diseases that we have at that time of year anyway, especially with the moderate temperatures, but with the wetter conditions, the complete lack of sunlight, and you know, and I don't have to tell you, we know that. You know, turf is a plant needs photosynthesis to create its own food, right? So when it's not getting adequate sunlight, it's going to naturally thin anyway. But then throw on 250 rounds a day and you get all kind of thinning. And you know, you know how some of our golfers can be. They don't want to hear things like the weather. That's just an excuse as to why you're not doing whatever. Hear things like the weather, that's just an excuse as to why you're not doing whatever.
Speaker 2:And so in my career, we had another El Nino in 2016. And you know and unfortunately it was the same year that John Foy retired I begged him just sit around for two more years. I need your help Because I had never been through one and I remember it started hitting about mid January and well, actually, backing up, I had a couple of veteran superintendents when I mean veteran, you know 15 years of experience. Right, you don't want to say the older guys, but it was with the older guys coming to me and saying Todd, this El Nino, I'm raising Moenites. I know I'm going to get grief over, you know, putting speed, complaints and but just letting you know, kind of where I'm at, you know cause I was there at Ron and us, you know, visiting them and it's like, oh great, well, whatever I have to do to support you in that, I think that's important and it's funny, fast forward to that January when we were in the thick of it and some of the younger superintendents that weren't prepared, not only not prepared, but you know how it is if you're a young superintendent, you're trying to please that membership. If you do get grumblings, yeah, it's that vocal 5%, but it's the they're vocal and you're trying to, you know, have job security and you want to give them the best possible conditions. Well, you begin lowering the mowing and you want to give them the best possible conditions. Well, you begin lowering the mowing heights at the wrong time of year and that can cause problems and the veterans knew it. And, um, cause, when I, you know, I, I like I said it was about mid January of 2016, where I finally had about four golf courses that said that came to me and said, todd, we're struggling, we need you to to host something. You know absolutely. So we found a golf course in naples that, uh, would host an event. It, you know the attendance filled out within four days of you know saying and they, what was nice is they were bringing their green committee chairs, they're bringing their general managers, bringing the course officials that could hear you know the what we're all struggling with, um, and when the east coast guys heard what we were doing on the West Coast, they were like we need the same thing over here. So that week I did another one over there again, packhouse, and then Tampa you know, same thing. So I say all that is we hosted three meetings. In addition, I also produced three different articles and some of them were just pictures Like this is what's happening and this is why yeah, it meant that I got a lot of, you know, thank yous for that.
Speaker 2:January, february, even in coming into march of that year, so fast forward. Um, I, I left the usg in 2018. We were preparing some presentations late, uh, summer, early fall of last year, and I began to hear el nino and immediately I started getting triggered. Uh, scott, and I thought you know, what can we do? Last time I was in the thick of this. We were doing reactive stuff, kind of explaining to memberships why things were happening the way they were, um, and so we got ahead of it, um, and you know we had our sales team reach out to. You know, in Florida, I think, we have 12 superintendent associations. We were doing seven presentations through that, november, december, even January. We did two more meetings at that time. But then I also got a call to record it and I, you know, I just apologize for anybody who sat through the entire hour of that. I haven't quite learned, you know. You keep it real short.
Speaker 1:We have that problem here at the podcast as well.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll try not to add to that today, scott, but anyway, so you know I think it was helpful. We've had a lot of uh accolades from a lot of folks. It's it's the most watched video that in view has put out there by probably 10 times, and I knew it would be. They just and all we were doing was explaining you know again, um, you know what, what, what we're dealing with and why agronomically, and no mentions of any. You know products, just more to help.
Speaker 2:You know, like raising the mowing heights, right, things that we can do in the summer to kind of dilute that organic layer. Because you know and you have to speak at the level that the golfer understands their most important thing is, you know, obviously, putting speed. That's important to them, right, putting speed, that's important to them, but, right, when course wide plug lies. That you know. We we kind of giggle at it because we're all about the agronomy side, but that's huge. When you get these, you know, um, water that's just not leaving, and I should have said the other environmental thing that's happening because of this cooler we're having like very, very little evapotranspiration, so whatever water we take on doesn't leave, and so that suffocates the roots and causes all these playing condition issues.
Speaker 2:So so anyway, like you said, yeah, I mean I wasn't the only one thankful we had a couple super tennis, uh, make some videos right. And again, the whole thing was to kind of say we're all in this together, um, and I think it's important. You know, and I think we're. Actually I saw the usga is going to host an el nino um thing at a, at a course here in a couple weeks, and that's great, because now we're going to have to deal with, you know, trying to tell all these golf clubs why they had, why they're over budget this year.
Speaker 1:You know, because this, if this weather pattern wasn't kind as far as diseases and we were putting out a lot more fungicides than than we expected, so, yeah, and it was you know, I think, uh, you know we found a gcsaa and and the association produced with, with some help from some of the same uh folks, uh down your way, that you mentioned uh kind of a resource page on the website that had a bunch of information, not only agronomic but also communications, because that was really one of the things I think most turfgrass managers down there kind of knew, techniques they could use to kind of nurse their courses through this period. And you mentioned, you know, raising mowing heights more rolling than mowing things of that nature, just to kind of do that. And I will post a link in the show notes to our resource page and some of the stuff that you folks did at Enview as well. Obviously, the more dire situation has faded as we've gone into spring, but there's some good resources there.
Speaker 1:As you, as superintendents, look ahead to next year. I'm curious. Just one other question on that topic as we've moved, as weather has improved and courses are beginning to to to, I guess, recover from this, what have have there been any impacts on how superintendents are managing now that there is sunlight and there are? There are the normal things that are associated with the state of Florida because of what they went through in those first two weeks, that they're having to kind of navigate around. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Scott. So you know we go. We go at a time where we're not growing, we're trying to keep things alive, just in the normal winter. Not, you know, not even El Nino and then we it's funny it happens around the time of of the show, um, and you can tell the guys that are still under stress.
Speaker 2:They're not at the show, but most most years you see a lot of guys there with smiling faces because we hit this, where we hit this light switch, literally and figuratively, where we begin to warm up, we get a lot more sunlight. That was a little prolonged this year, or I should say, you know, it came later for us this year, but one of the big things so you mentioned, like raising mowing heights, absolutely more fungicides. But then the big question I got from a lot of superintendents was on plant growth regulators, because, honestly, we stay on PGRs for probably most of the year, including our winter play season, and so there was a lot of questions on do I apply them, do I not apply them? Do I use the combinations that are out there? Most folks are using primo and anew, and so so you know, should I take out one of those? And and uh, anyway, now that we're growing it's, you know we're not asking that question anymore um and uh. So, yeah, we're, uh, not only growing, but um, the the cycle for us is march through may is kind of our drier season, and so it's's, it's it's. Unfortunately, we've gone through like really really wet, wet, wet, wet, and now it's, it's, everything's drying out, and so we're, we're, we're getting our wetting agents out there. The folks that have the fertigation units are are, you know, do a little better, because they can broad scale. A lot of those wetting agents. Um, you get our localized dry spots that are popping up. And uh, the other issue though we we have some emerging pests, and I say emerging, but back gosh.
Speaker 2:I was with the USGA, you know, till 2018, in 2015,. I wrote an article that said we might MIT be having an emerging. And so, you know, play on words, but it was on Budagrass, mites. I was beginning to see more and more golf courses, um, where it was more than just the tea here or there. Um, and to be honest, I didn't see them until 2014. I was with the usa since 2000. I had never seen the first issue of mites until 2014.
Speaker 2:And uh, funny story. But um, superintendent said, hey, I, uh, you know you're doing your pre-visit kind of warm-up as to what the things you want to talk about. And, um, superintendent says so I got this one tea todd at the back of it's turned a little off. Well, we're doing our visit, we're making our way through the golf we totally forgot about this tea issue and we're walking up. He's like this. This is an area I want to take a look at. So we're walking up and and I said, oh, it looks like you had a head that stayed on. Um, it looked like the front half of this tea was just dry. He's like no, this is ty, this is that issue I was talking about. I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 2:Well, I begin walking up and immediately start seeing the witch's broom. Well, you know, inevitably, with a lot of our visits, you'd have the entire green committee and, as a turf nerd Scott, it was hard holding back and I couldn't because I had never seen them up to that point and I was excited. I was seeing witches' brooms in the green committee. They weren't as excited as I was. In fact, do you think we can get a little discount, maybe on your excitement level of what you're learning? I picked that up with USGA, but but I, this is I, you know. So, anyway, I say all this.
Speaker 2:I began seeing it in 2014. Once you see it, you can't unsee it and you know what to look for. I may have seen some in my past, but I didn't. I didn't know what I was looking at Once you see a true witch's brooms. Why I say that is because I think you know, when I left the USGA at 18, I was probably seeing on maybe 50% of the golf courses. I'm now seeing it on probably 80% of the golf courses that I visit, but it's not epidemic, it's not so much. I mean, sometimes it is, sometimes it's it's the whole golf force is yellow and you see witches, brooms or could be the roughs. It's mostly the roughs that we see, but we see them all on all playing surfaces, including greens. Not not as much on greens, um, but I think and I made a little video recently on we're trying to do more of this education type um thing through our, our social media. But uh, you know, we're seeing mites.
Speaker 2:I think there's other issues. It's kind of like when you have nematodes, you can have, you know, high enough thresholds to where they cause problems by themselves. They don't need additional stress factors. But when you have them, like that March through May period which coincide with our dry season, so it's drought. But you know, also during the drought we're getting a lot of salt movements upwards until we get our flushing rains, which generally begin in June. And I think more and more superintendents are becoming aware of what borbita grass mites look like. To be honest, we still have a lot of golf course superintendents that are unaware of billbugs and it's kind of like the mites.
Speaker 2:I saw the mites in 2015. I didn't see billbugs until 2019, or actually it was 2020. Funny how it coincided with our introduction to Trino to the marketplace, but it had to do with it. I promise I had a superintendent send me a picture of he's like hey, I see these little scuff marks I'm not sure what they are. And then he's in his hand. He's holding a handful of billbug larvae. Well, there again.
Speaker 2:In my whole career up to that point, so 20 years down here in Florida, I would always have superintendents kind of come with adult billbugs and say, hey, what is this? And it's like well, it's a billbug. And their next question is well, does it cause problems to turf? And I would throw back on them and say I don't know. Is it causing problems on your turf? Why? I say all that is when you read you know an adult or hunting billbug from a university extension paper.
Speaker 2:The first thing that it says an often misidentified turf pass, because they will show up. It's kind of kind of look like dollar spot, which for us on Bermuda is not a big deal. This means you need to fertilize a little bit more. They kind of look like traffic stress and it's funny, even our sales guys, which are former superintendents that you know, it's the first thing they say. Guys which are former superintendents that you know, it's the first thing they say is Todd, I've probably looked at billbugs probably my whole career and just didn't know what I was looking at. So I say all that.
Speaker 2:I say, scott, that yeah, mites are very important for us right now, since the El Nino and then billbugs, by the day I'm having more and more guys that are, I guess, watching my uh, my ex, uh, I'm using, try to use social media pretty regularly to educate and um and and that's great, because now I'm, they're sending me pictures where they're going. Hey, I'm doing the tugubbs which we have them down here. They're not as problematic as our brothers up north of the Florida line, but we do, we have them. They're just not as problematic. The thresholds, I guess, aren't as high as what you guys do with them in your region.
Speaker 1:That's an awesome overview of kind of what's going on in your part of the world right now. I want to, I want to take you back in time to when you were, uh, talk a little bit about you and your and your career and just how you got into into turf and into golf. Um, where did you grow up and what? What are you? What kind of some of your first memories, where you found yourself? Man, I'm kind of, I'm kind of interested in in what's going on in the yard or on the golf course or or something like this how did this all get started for you?
Speaker 2:Well, thanks for asking. I, I, I grew up in the industry, uh, literally uh. My dad, 42 year career as a golf course superintendent, um grew up in Florida. So I'm I've been blessed with old career to um not have had to move Um I, I I did five years outside of the state where I got my master's up uh at Clemson university.
Speaker 2:Um, but my first memory of golf course uh as a whole was on Saturdays when my dad went to do weekend maintenance or, you know, manage the crew. Uh, he would, he would drop me off at a, at a uh a little pond, uh out of the way, and say you know, look, stay out of the way. If you see any golfers you know, hide behind a tree. Uh, thank you, and and and you know uh. But so that was my first memories of uh, of the golf force and um the, the great environments that they, that they are uh, environmental havens which we don't do a good enough job speaking on that and I will get on my soapbox, but um, so much to golf that's beyond this sport um of what we do for the environment. But so that was my first memories Uh. I began working uh at the golf course where my dad was a superintendent, and he became general manager after a couple of years, um, and then after a couple of years, he said I've had enough of this general manager stuff, ready to go crass again. Uh, but during that time I was 14. So that was my first summer uh job was at the golf course and I worked on um.
Speaker 2:So, he, we, were down in Fort Lauderdale, uh, at a golf course called Jacaranda. Uh, it was a 36 hole facility. And then, um, he got called up to the plantation in panabidra. Uh, they're building. Uh, there it was being built from the ground up. Um, the former director had had reached out to my dad and asked if he knew anything about bent grass. Uh, dad, being a native floridian, said, uh, no, uh, don't know anything about bent grass. They said, well, well, do you want to learn? Because that's the greens we're putting in here. And so his kind of yeah, I guess, claim to fame. What he did really well was grow bent grass for 13 years on those greens. And so I was 15 when we my first summer job toting a hose all summer and keeping those dry spots at bay. And then he ended up going out to Bighorn out in Southern California and was there out there for 18 years, at the same time that I went to grad school up at Clemson.
Speaker 2:And so, you know, I didn't know, honestly, I'll be honest. I mean it was a job. I enjoyed doing it. I got a two-year degree in business administration. Thinking that I wanted to be in business because that's where money was, shows you, my maturity level wasn't where it was. But life can mature you, scott, you know, your experiences can mature you. And so I got a job working inside what I thought I wanted.
Speaker 2:And I, about two months, I hated every day of going into work. Um, and it, I was in a stock room and I said, you know, I would rather be raking a bumper in the rain right now, um, than doing this. And then the light bulb went off. We're like, well, why don't you do this as a career? Why don't you? You know it's, I don't know, you know it's, it's one of those you know things where, um, you know, my dad did it. So I was like, oh, you know, I don't know, I just don't know all in his footsteps. But you know, when you get that job you think you want it's like, nope, that's not what you want. Um, there's just something about the career. You know that we all. It's funny, you get us, you get a bunch of turf guys in a room and they start what got you into the industry? It's, it's working outside. Um, man, there's just something when you work outside and the weather is different every day and and um. But for me, I'm a bit of an artistic person, I like to do things with my hands. But I like to go, you know, even if it's just mowing a green and mowing laser line, and you look at your half of the green that you mowed and you go, I mowed that, you know. Or raking a bumper, it's like, you know, whatever, you're able to do things with your hand and get immediate gratification. And so, anyway, I wanted to be a superintendent.
Speaker 2:I went to University of Florida. I worked for Dr Burke Apartheid when he was at Florida as an undergraduate he gave me the opportunity to give a professional talk at a Southern Wheat Science Society meeting, and some find it hard to believe, but public speaking is still not something I'm super happy about. People go. You're crazy, todd. You're a great speaker, I'll go. Thank you, that took a lot of years because I hated it and it was the only reason I said would you mind if I, or Dr McCarty, would you mind if I gave a talk at that meeting? He's like, no, that'd be great, todd.
Speaker 2:And um, I, I did it cause I hated public speaking and I wanted to get better at it. That led to me meeting a professor at Clemson who offered me, um, an assistantship, and um, I was, I was married. I got married when I was 20. And and uh, right before I went to the university of Florida, so I was married, going to UF, um and um, my wife and I, you know, thought that'd be a great idea.
Speaker 2:Just to continue, cause I still said, what can you do with a master's degree? And I always said, well, I can still be a superintendent. Um, but it was funny, somebody said, well, you can also be a USGA agronomist. And I thought, wow, really, um, that's that's. That's because I knew my dad and the respect, respect that he had for the green section and when he was, in a pinch, you know, bringing John Foy in and even Pat Pat O'Brien down from, uh, georgia, down, um, because he had bent grass. And so I just knew the, I knew what he felt about the green section. I said that would be awesome. So that was a career goal of mine, altered through grad school, is to do it, and God really blessed me for the opportunity when it came time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you were able to do that for a very long time and did you ever regret not going the superintendent route or or it's? It sounds like you. You know you had some goals and those goals presented themselves to you and you were able to to kind of achieve them. But did you ever look back and and and think, you know, I wouldn't have minded having my own, my own 18 holes to tend to and manage and do all that kind of stuff?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, great question. Scott and I and I'd be remiss, I, I, I forgot one little blurb. So there was a time. So I actually got my master's and I stayed on. I was working on a PhD and our daughter was born the same month that I started my PhD there at Clemson, and so I was a full-time research technician in addition to trying to do a PhD. And then, you know, my wife said look, I don't want to go back to work. I said, well, that's fine, I'll go mow greens in the morning at our local golf course. So I began mowing greens and it was another lifeboat moment where I went, man, I I loved, cause I didn't know him every day, but every day that I did go to Mo greens at the Scott force, I loved it.
Speaker 2:And it was two years into trying this. You know this. Uh, you know, phd slash research technician and and, uh, with a goal at that point, really, to go on and be full professor, um, I wanted to be similar to what Burton party, um, you know his position. But to have applied, uh, you know, um, extension agents, especially and he's not an extension agent, but folks that have extension and research and some teaching um, those those positions, uh, even at that time, work there, there weren't a lot of them and they weren't creating you. And they're even worse today, unfortunately. Uh, so I, I saw the prospects of that, getting you know, smaller and smaller, and and I said, you know, I, uh, I'm, I'm kind of done, I'm done studying.
Speaker 2:At this point my wife is like I think you've been doing this for eight years now, I think you know. So I actually I had a short stint where I went down I worked so with my Audubon connection, I guess, or my love for the Audubon program, and also I just wanted to mentor under somebody who I respected immensely. And I got the opportunity to work with Tim Hires for a short time, but it was so short, scott, it's like you know you have plans and then God has other plans. So I went down, I interviewed with Tim, I got the position. I'm coming back to Clemson, I'm trying to hand off projects that were kind of halfway through, you know, being done to different people and I'm literally like I am. I feel like I'm floating every day because I'm getting ready to go work for Tim and be in the industry, exploding, uh, every day because I'm getting ready to go work for tim and and be in the industry.
Speaker 2:Um, and then, um, burt mccarty actually got a call, uh, to see if he wanted to be a usg agronomist. And I said, burt, I owe a lot of my career to burt, dr laferdi, um, but uh, anyway, dr mccarty said well, I'm, I'm, you know, I'm doing what I love is being a professor. But but I have Todd Lowe here and he all he's want to do is work for you guys. And and so I hadn't even started with Tim and um got you know I had already begun discussing with the USGA and the funny thing was is like I was so excited just to work for Tim, work on Seashore Pass Pallet. It was the first Seashore Pass Pallet golf course in the continent of the US, at Old Collier. And then not only that, but it was the first Audubon signature series, so there were a lot of furs and I was so excited I totally forgot about the USGA opportunity because it wasn't one of those like, yeah, we can hire you tomorrow, because I would have called Tim to say Tim, I apologize, but John Foy was like no, go work for Tim. And if this all works out, todd, tim will be happy for you. And, and it was so true, tim is, as you probably know, is just one of the gentlemen you know in our industry and just, you know, as a whole wonderful man and uh, I totally forget that. I never, I never spoke with them about it.
Speaker 2:Well, I get a call one day that said hey, todd, before you uh leave, uh, could you come? You know, um, come by the office real quick. And so anyway, I come in, he's like hey, close the door, um, go. Okay, they closed the door. He's like so I talked to John for today and I'm like oh, yeah, the US, yeah, and we were in the midst of construction, we weren't even the golf course at that time, but you know it. You know like, listen, todd, I uh, whatever you need, um, you you want to.
Speaker 2:You know, when it's time to interview, hey, you know you have my full support for and and it was so funny, scott, that was my dream to to work, you know, for the green section, um, but I had become so wrapped into golf course at that time. It literally what it was, a it, it was one of those. I say it was a tough decision, it was, and it wasn't uh, meaning I could have had a wonderful career, I feel, um continuing to mentor under Tim, you know, going to the assistant and then eventually superintendent, um, but because that was a dream of mine, um, you know it was a, it was an easy yet tough decision, but my my two month stint in the golf course.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm sure it was memorable for Tim as well to have you there. Tim, you're exactly right. Tim's a wonderful guy who I feel blessed to have gotten to know over my years in the business as well. So I want to take a quick break, I would say, to pay some bills. We don't really have bills on the podcast, but we want to give the fine folks at Enview a chance to say a few words. We will come back and I want to talk about your transition onto Enview and the Green Solutions team and then talk a little bit about the company and some things that have been happening there. So we will be back right after this.
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Speaker 1:All right, we are back with Todd Lowe with Green Solutions team from Enview down in the state of Florida. When we took a break we were discussing, todd kind, of your career, your life, your long ambition to work for the green section, which you got a chance to live out that dream for a long time. But I think you said 2018 was when you transitioned into your current role with Enview. What was that process like for you? You had a job that you had always wanted, but what was it about the Green Solutions team and the role that you were kind of presented with at Enview that made you think the time was right and that this was something that kind of made sense for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you're right. I mean I definitely was living the dream, um, you know, uh, I mean my, my whole career has been that way, scott, um, but you know it's funny. So we set these career goals for ourselves every year. Uh, you know whether and I don't care, you know who you're working for.
Speaker 2:But I remember, you know, with the USGA, it was one of those things where you know, every year you had your informal kind of like what you wanted to work on every year, and every year I would say, you know, I really want to learn the chemistries better. I want to learn, you know, the fungicide families and the insecticide families, and it was one of those things that it was a personal goal but it was never something that I had to be measured on. So laziness kicked in and I hardly ever worked on them. And, to be honest, we have such a great network of distributor reps, of manufacturers, reps that are out there that are answering the questions for the superintendents, that, as a USGA agronomist, those things never came up much, I mean, other than, hey, todd, I hear there's this new risk way. What do you think about it? Or, you know, nordica, what do you? And I would kind of regurgitate, or tell you know that course, what I had learned from other courses that were using it teams out there, and I never had to. And I had to know about bunker refurbishment, when it's time to, you know, redo a putting green, the importance of trees, and you know how they can, the things that superintendents were needing from me as a USGA agronomist. So, yeah, the opportunity came up.
Speaker 2:Lawrence Mudge, who was our GST manager at the time, gave me a call one day and maybe an offer I couldn't refuse, which was not having to move, which was wonderful, get the less. We like change and yeah in that regard. So at least I got to. In fact, that was kind of one of the big pitches, was you know, todd? Hey, come do what you're doing for the UFC, come do it for for bear and um. So you know, I went from wanting to learn all those things. Now that's my whole job, uh. So I say that, but you know, at the same time, um, we are, you know, as green, green solutions team members. We do a lot. We obviously talk about our products when we talk about other people's products, because whatever worked best is what we want to recommend.
Speaker 2:I guess the one thing that I feel I bring maybe that some of the others is my field experience. There is something that you gain from being with a superintendent for three hours riding around that golf cart. That's beyond turf management, um, so you get the feel of what's important, um, you know. But certainly you know I have a really good feel for what's going on in Florida, um, and, uh, in other regions too. Um, you know, when I was with the USGA I didn't get to visit other other regions, um, but to then to utilize that when you're looking at a turf that doesn't look good, and that could be from a number of reasons, I mean it could, like I mentioned earlier about the mites, it could be the mites that are, we'll say, above threshold but are certainly causing that primary stress floor.
Speaker 2:Take a deeper dive what's going on with the soil? What's going on, you know, with other stresses? And you know, as that agronomist, I've looked at all those stresses for so long that you know pesticides are a complement to a good agronomic foundation. You have to have that agronomic foundation and I think that's probably one of the strengths I'm able to bring you know to this team of brilliant folks. They're all super. You know PhD guys that they know their stuff, and it's a great resource for me because then I can call them and say, hey, I need help.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:You mentioned the value of spending time with superintendents. You obviously have an actual agronomic background, someone like myself, my backgrounds in journalism and communications and what I've largely learned in the business, and you know, in addition to the the occasional turf crafts. You know I always say no just enough to be dangerous, but I've learned so much in this job by spending time on the golf course and having superintendents show me what I've heard, I've read about in research papers, I've heard people talk about to actually see it in practice. I mean, for someone like myself who doesn't have that background, unbelievably, unbelievably valuable. How, in your current role? How often are you in the field? Is it about the same as what you were doing with the green section? Is it more or less? What does that look like in your current role? So it's, it's a little.
Speaker 2:It's a little different and somewhat similar and I'll get into it. But you know you had Zach Riper on here last year and Zach is, you know, he covers everything West of the Mississippi.
Speaker 2:So it's man the things he needs to know about all of those regions where I am the exact opposite. And so Zach wears out Delta. You know he is going to all these places. I fly a couple times a year, you know to, well, certainly to the, to the conference and show, or or or to a internal meeting that we might have in North Carolina at our headquarters. But uh, you know he likes to kid me that, um, he's going to trade in my truck for a golf cart, Cause all I have is four counties that I have to um attend to, uh, which obviously I have more counties than that.
Speaker 2:But uh, the point is, I guess we and that's the great thing about our team we can do things differently. I think one of the strengths I do bring is is that the field experience and you know we provide that support to our sales team I think that's probably primary while at the same time providing what we need to the business, to the marketing teams, to development. But with my three members, you know, we try to spend as much time I do have to watch it because I, um, there are 12 superintendent associations you literally couldn't, you know, spend it. So there's a lot more time playing golf than I had in my usga career. Uh, funny enough, uh.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so I, I do attend probably a few more meetings than my other counterparts. Um, but, uh, yeah, we do the visits. Now, obviously, and here's where it's differing, you know, when I was a USGA agronomist, we would spend, you know, three, four hours in a golf cart driving around, and I used to kid people because I would say I was actually a part-time psychologist, psychiatrist, and that's a good thing, I mean, you know, because we do hear you know. But the great thing about that is you learn the stress that a superintendent is under every day and you try to alleviate it in any way possible. And so now you know we're working with Enview. It's trying to provide those great solutions for them, either with our products or other manufacturers.
Speaker 1:Right. Well, the company itself and obviously when you first started the company was bare went through the transition in the last couple of years to Enview what it is today. But as Enview's kind of gone through that transition, got its footing, moved forward. I mean, innovation is one of those things that's really I know from a product development standpoint has really been driving the company, driving the products that are coming out. What's that journey been like for you as someone inside who's been able to see it, and do you get questions from superintendents still to this day about the company, or do you find that the marketplace is largely OK? We know who Enview is. We know their reputation, the people they put forward, just from, I guess, an internal view. What's what's all that been like as the company's gone through that?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, and it's so it's a great question. I mean, bayer was, was such a great piece to our industry for many years and we don't want to lose that. Because we're the same team with the same products. We're just able, like you said, to be a little bit more innovative now. We are a little bit more mobile, a little bit more agile. You do have a few more, you know, superintendents from time to time that will say so hey, inview, and it's like all right. Well, I generally know those folks aren't connected to a lot of distributors. Maybe they don't have a lot of guys calling on a regular basis, because I think we've done a pretty good job with our partners to you know, explain, we are the same great service, same great products as Bear. We're just, you know, a lot more innovative and a little bit more agile and can do some things differently. So you know it's been great. I mean, so we've got our new product that came out last year, resilio.
Speaker 2:I mean you talk about innovation. I mean there's not a product out there like it that combines both the nematicide and fungicide piece, and that's so important for us in Florida, where we have nematode problems at a lot of places and I think it gets lost, because we tend to all be creatures of okay, that's a mole cricket, I want to apply this product for it. Or, this is the thing about nematodes is you know they sit there and chew on the roots, and that you know they sit there and chew on the roots and that you know they do a number on the root structure and when they do that, it makes it so open for secondary pathogens. And you know. It's important, I think, to couple that idea of, yes, we want to control the nematodes, but at the same time we've also got to provide something for those secondary pathogens that are going to take advantage of those weakened roots. And so you know, like I said, it's really neat because I think it really helps explain who we are as a company by having this very first product that's ours, that's in views, you know to be such an innovative piece.
Speaker 2:And then, for us, we don't get talked about it much because it really affects three states, but it's the Bermuda grass mice like I was talking about. We have a product called Comtos, which came out of our ornamental industry, but it's doing so well, you know, among all of the commercial products that are out there. It's absolutely the best, absolutely the best. So anyway, I like being a part of that kind of team that can bring these new innovations to the market rather quickly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that innovation, I mean I think most superintendents are probably familiar with StressGuard fungicide products. Caslons, I think, is another new fungicide or relatively new fungicide that's come along. What are you seeing in terms of adoption of those kind of products in your area and can you give us kind of a little Reader's Digest version of you know what those products bring to the table for golf course, superintendents?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. Um, so cast lawns is a new one just coming out for us. Um, and uh, it should be ready rather soon. Um, and you know it's, it's going to bring an excellent I'd like to say, additive component to the great programs we already have in place. Um, so it's going to, it's going to provide some things that we currently, um, I will say, don't have we. Just, I think it's going to be that really sweet spot of coming in and being a great supplement to some of the great programs that we have out there.
Speaker 2:And where I'm going is, I think it gets lost in the stress guard piece. And maybe because I'm just coming on six years in August with InView, I'm still excited about the product because of what it does internally, and it's hard sometimes for us to explain that because the product itself has a pigment in it, and so I think as a whole we kind of go oh well, that's the greening that we get, is the pigment, you know, and it's like, well, that's the immediate greening. But the deeper dive that's been done through research that we've done in Rutgers, actually showing is stabilizing that chloric molecule for plants that are under stress. And there again, I'm not that high level guy. I'm a guy, give me some product, let me try it out there. And we did these demos for two years on golf courses in Florida on fairways. It's not even our market. But what I need to say is there's not a lot of fairway funnyside applications being made. I think there's more and more than there used to be, but it's not a common thing like we have for our northern golf courses.
Speaker 2:But what I was able to do was see that stress guard difference. I mean, it's like when you look at a fairway that's not treated with these products, they're looking good and you know one of those things when you take an up-close picture of that, you want to pick an average area and then you go to an average area that's been treated with stress guard and then you put them on the screen side-by-side. It's oh okay, there's the difference. Um, and I need three and four weeks after application. That's where I'm going is immediately that we go oh well, that's the dye, that's the pigment, and, yes, it is, for you know, the first three days. Well then, what happens? We mow off all of that, all of that dye, and yet we get a lasting greening effect that takes place for three weeks after. So that's, that's the hard part of me, I guess, sharing my excitement level, learning more and more. But picture is worth a thousand words, so we take lots of great pictures.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, I mean you emphasize how you guys are utilizing social media to share. That's become such an important tool for superintendents to exchange ideas, to solve problems, to learn about new products, and I think that's. You know, there's plenty of parts of the social media world we probably don't want to deal with anymore, but there are. Specifically in our industry, something we've seen, I think just you know, uh, it's been a big, it's been a big community, a big sounding board and they're they're able to, uh, they're able to do you know what they often do at, say, chapter meetings or things like that, where they all trade war stories. Um, they're now able to do that and um, it's.
Speaker 1:I think it's awesome that Enview's really kind of leaned into that, because it is, it is a pretty amazing tool. So, um, and you also mentioned superintendent's willingness and really desire to try stuff to to open their golf courses to companies like Enview, um and it extends to the equipment side that they want to see these products in, in, uh, in action, and when they're able to, it's sure they'll believe you, they'll believe the university research, but when they can see it on their own golf course, that's pretty powerful. It must be fun for guys like yourself to see that light bulb go off when that actually takes place.
Speaker 2:It really is, scott. I mean we can do all these highfalutin and we need to. We need to do all the science at all the universities and continue to support their great programs where they're actually running statistics and then we can see the statistical differences. But it's something else and you know it's, yeah, it's. It's great when you can put that product out and then see their faces and, like you say, then you social media and the fun part about my job because I do get out so much, I get guys that will send me pictures and it's become it actually has become it's pretty funny.
Speaker 2:I generally will say, well, hey, do you mind if I put this out on social media? Well, it's, it's become such a thing now where a guy sent me a few pictures and I responded to him they were some disease pictures and I kind of went, oh yeah, you know, and I sent him a few, a few ideas and thoughts. Well then he called me like at five o'clock that afternoon like, hey, why is it not on social media? So they're expecting me because you know, you probably should know, you see a lot of really pretty pictures from a lot of superintendents. Yes, we're the ones you know. Uh, they get to see the non-pretty pictures. That's right. Yeah, so it's it's.
Speaker 2:It's a great way for us, you know, if we're the ones you know to see the non-pretty pictures. That's right. Yeah, so it's a great way for us. You know, if we're anonymous and saying, hey, this is what's taking place, I love it because I just remember, as an anonymous, we had regional updates and I would use regional updates to give information to a superintendent where he can take his ring to his ring committee and say, look, we're not the only ones that are dealing with. You know X, y and Z. That's now what I use social media for. I become such a snowball thing where where now guys are expecting me to put it out on social media. It's pretty funny.
Speaker 1:It's usually the other way around. They're like why did you put that on social media? And now now they're? Now they're wanting that, so that's right. As long as I'm anonymous, yeah, that's right. Yeah, so as long as my boss doesn't see this. Um well, todd, I really appreciate your time today. Um, uh, some awesome information. I know superintendents learned a lot. I'm not going to let you go without our world famous final four questions. I didn't prep you at all for these, but there, I don't. I hopefully there's not any gotchas, uh, in here, but uh, uh, I'll start off. Uh, what's your favorite memory? Uh, in the game of golf. You worked as a with the green section in the usga for a lot of years, so I know you've had the opportunity to to uh see and do some amazing things in addition to what you're doing with enview. But what's your favorite memory from the game of golf?
Speaker 2:oh well, I mean it's, it's tough of the older idea, you know, the the more my heart goes, you know, to, to, to, to the early memories and, like I was mentioning earlier you know it's funny, it's not really a golf memory, but it's it's those, uh, being with my dad, uh, on those ponds, um, you know otherwise, if it's just a maintenance, um, those, those, those long afternoons where the sun is beginning to set and that's casting, that beautiful, uh, you know, look across the entire golf course, there's just, I don't know, there's just something that's, you know, we don't have the beautiful vistas like we have in Colorado, montana, but right, you know, but it's the little vistas that that are really cool, but I still, yeah, your sunrises and sunsets aren't, uh't, aren't too bad.
Speaker 1:uh, down that way so yeah um, biggest advancement you've seen in golf course management. Obviously a long career here and when, especially with your dad um, are there anything that you remember your dad say, your dad or in his crew struggling with that? Now you see it's being largely automated, or what? What's been a big, a big impact on the, on the business of golf course management. Oh my gosh. Well, scott, that's tough to tough to narrow down.
Speaker 2:I mean, look the, you know the internet, how's that? I mean, that'd be, you know, instant information, I guess. As far as being, um, you know, on the golf course, I think, uh, I think portable um moisture probes are key to help us to take it to another level. And even I just recall my days, as I was 15, 16, those summers of having to pull a little half-inch probe, feeling it going. Okay, that's either wet or dry Probes gives you a number instantaneous, and so I think that's been a big key one. You know, chemically, the PGRs I think our use of those now is just so commonplace and they're great tools.
Speaker 1:Favorite golf course you've played.
Speaker 2:Favorite golf course. I've played oh boy. For various reasons golf course I've played oh boy, uh, for various reasons. I I still think. I think, because of its uniqueness, um here in florida would be stream saw um okay, yeah there's nothing like it.
Speaker 2:Uh, and I know I mean I can hear the moans of a lot of certain tennis, but man, why didn't you know I did get to play seminal once and that you know I wasn't one that I could really appreciate it? I think if I played it today my opinion would be vastly different. Just even walking on those grounds is something beyond. I did get to visit Cabot I haven't played it yet, but boy, cabot has that looks to be pretty darn unique. But my favorite is still the stream song, just because it's so vastly different with those, uh, phosphate spoil mounds that that could know that you know yeah, I've not been able to get out there.
Speaker 1:I obviously have seen plenty of pictures and read plenty of plenty about it, but um looks like a pretty. I mean, there are so many cool, unique places that have that have grown up in the last 10 to 20 years. Um, whether you're talking the band and dunes, properties down to stream song um, just some some pretty amazing places. Do you have a bucket list of golf courses at all that you uh, that you've not been able to tackle, that you'd love to, to take a hack at?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, and I'm going to back, I'm going to take one step back, though, scott. Um, I mean the, the absolute, you know, uh, pinnacle. I was very fortunate in my USGA career to be able to play the old course, uh, and it, so I, I, I have to. I mean that has to be, you know, if you've played, you know that's, that's so because of what it is, uh, and then, and it's dreamsong, um, but yeah, no, I, I, uh, that's a great question. There's, there's not really um, one. I'm fortunate when I do get to play, but, um, I'm, I'm unlike some of the guys like, like a, like a John Riley who's in our area, that just love play, and or there's tons of guys, uh, seth Strickland, I mean six time, you know, winner of the GC. You know I'm not one of those guys. I'm a hacker. You know, winner of the season. You know I'm not one of those guys. I'm a hacker. I love it. I'm spending time looking at weeds and bugs when I'm out there, of course, even playing.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, well, we could hang together sounds like on the golf course, because I too am pretty much a hack. So I don't know if you're a big sports fan, but you've got your educational background in this business, both at Florida and Clemson. Do you consider one over the other as your team, or do you even have a team when it comes to college sports? Who's doing?
Speaker 2:better that year. No, I'm just kidding. If the Gators and the Tigers are on at the same time, I'm watching the Gators. I mean, you know, born and bred a Florida boy, but I tell you I do love to watch some Clemson football and even basketball. That was fun to watch him here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they had a great season on the hardwood and that's all continuing to go on so well. Todd, you've given more than your fair share of your time. I know you're really busy and I appreciate you kind of taking this opportunity to kind of talk about your career, what's going on in the state of Florida and everything that's taking place with Enview. So can't thank you enough for joining us today. Thank you, scott. Well, that's a wrap on episode 65 of the GC SAA podcast.
Speaker 1:My thanks to Enview's Todd Lowe for taking time to chat with us today. Learned a lot about Todd's career and the role that he plays as a member of the Green Solutions team over at Enview. And, of course, my thanks to the fine folks at Enview for their continued support of this podcast. It is much appreciated. As always, more episodes of the podcast are on the way, so keep an eye on your feeds for those. But for now, I'll say goodbye by thanking podcast editor Evan Shapiro, the GCSA Board of Directors and the fantastic staff at Association Headquarters in Lawrence, kansas. And, of course, my thanks to each of you for subscribing, downloading and listening. Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy and thank you for listening to the GCSA podcast.