Welcome to the third issue of Ewing Links Report for 2017!

We hope you find this issue informative and
helpful in your quest to create and curate the best course possible.

Ewing Irrigation & Landscape Supply merges with Upstart Products

Exciting news ahead! Ewing and Upstart have merged, expanding their product offerings and exceptional services.

We are excited for Ewing’s diverse, golf product offerings to become even more robust with the addition of Upstart’s products. Upstart has served the golf industry in Florida for more than 20 years with sustainable fertilizers, soil amendments, plant nutrients and more.

Through this merger, Upstart customers will have access to a full line of irrigation, landscape and specialty products, as well as additional Ewing services.

The Ewing and Upstart partnership also benefits the green industry as a whole, as the two companies grow together to expand the industry. Our golf team is ready to continue to serve you with the addition of more products, services and resources available to help you build your business. 

Get ready to meet the Upstart team in our next issue.

Are you ready for winter?

This year has flown by, and it’s hard to believe the fall season is upon us. Are you prepared to properly winterize your golf course’s irrigation system?

Proper winterization can prevent a host of problems from occurring when you are ready to start things back up in
the spring.

Take a look at Three Steps to Properly Winterizing Your Golf Course Irrigation System, located on page four for some tips on getting your system prepared for winter.

Staying pumped

It’s been a great year for Ewing so far, but we know even greater things are ahead! Thanks for being a part of the Ewing golf team, and we look forward to seeing what else we will accomplish before the close of 2017. Stay pumped!

Steve Sakurai

Steve Sakurai is the National Golf Manager for Ewing Irrigation and Landscape Supply. A graduate of Cal Poly Pomona with a degree in Electrical Engineering, Steve spent 13 years with Rain Bird Golf before serving Ewing Golf for the past 13 years. He can be reached at ssakurai@ewingirrigation.com.

Mirimichi Green has awarded Broken Sound Club, in Boca Raton, Fla., with the first Mirimichi Green Sustainable Program Member Award. Broken Sound Club has taken a lead in the golf industry to make every step of their agronomic program sustainable.

The Old Course at Broken Sound has been home to the PGA Champions Tour Allianz Championship since 2007. The original Broken Sound Club, now affectionately known as the “Old Course,” was founded in 1978 and designed by Joe Lee. Gene Bates completed a redesign of the Old Course in January 2004, then again in the summer of 2014. While long-term issues prompted the 2014 redesign, it gave Broken Sound Club the chance to set goals to be more environmentally responsible and reduce their environmental footprint. 

Mirimichi Green first noticed Broken Sound Club’s sustainable efforts in March 2014 and was impressed by the club’s mindfulness of their community and the surrounding environment. After meeting with Shannon Easter, the Director of Golf Maintenance,
to discuss the benefits of Mirimichi Green’s sustainable products and how it could benefit their program for The Old Course, it was clear that the two companies were a perfect fit. The products and soil were tested and a superior golf maintenance program
was formed.

Innovative practices

“We are seeing results from the use of Mirimichi Green’s CarbonizPN Soil Enhancer and liquid fertilizers in conjunction with reduced fertility rates, longer nutrient retention and less nematode activity. This year we also incorporated CarbonizPN in the DryJect application of our greens. All of Mirimichi Green’s products are now part of our annual agronomic program here at
the Broken Sound Club,” said Easter.

Broken Sound Club set their sustainable goals and practices them rigorously. Their focus is on integrated pest management, proper chemical and fertilizer practices, environmentally friendly landscaping, water conservation, water quality, energy conservation, pollution prevention, waste management, wildlife habitat conservation and enhancement and the list goes on.

Educational programs

Broken Sound Club didn’t stop with just improving their own program; they also encourage and educate others to do the same. “Because golf courses have such a negative perception with the general public, we constantly reinforce our professionalism, our commitment to the environment and our dedication to precise and effective natural resource and integrated pest management,” said Easter. “During the season,
I instruct a monthly membership educational program. The topics are designed to share our environmental programs with the membership in hopes that it will inspire them to participate.”

Russ Britton, CEO of Mirimichi Green, thanked Broken Sound Club for including Mirimichi Green products in their efforts. 

Pictured from left to right: Susan Haynie – Mayor of Boca Raton, John Crean – Golf Manager of Broken Sound Club, Shannon Easter – Director of Golf Maintenance at Broken Sound Club, Russ Britton – CEO of Mirimichi Green, and Michael Bright – National Sales Director of Mirimichi Green.

“Keeping the environment as a priority in any maintenance program is what we are all about and that is why we, at Mirimichi Green, would like to present them with this award,” Britton said. “We think that Broken Sound Club is taking the golf industry in the right direction and exemplifying how natural and sustainable products can work better than the harsh alternatives.”

Mirimichi Green products improve resource conservation while delivering outstanding performance and lasting benefits. Not only do the products provide results, but the products are environmentally friendly and can be incorporated into any existing turf program.

By Alex Reynolds, Marketing Manager for Mirimichi Green

Journey back in time with me to November 2011. I had just moved to the Carolinas and was working my first CGCSA trade show in Myrtle Beach, S.C. A gentleman came into Ewing’s booth and explained he had a Hunter irrigation system installed in the late 90s and was having multiple issues with it.

He further explained that multiple distributors had attempted to solve the problems they were having but were unable to do so. The customer who came into our booth was Michael Taylor, Assistant Superintendent at Raleigh Country Club in Raleigh, N.C. I told him we would love to take a look at his system and hear more about his struggles and arranged for Dirk Hessman, Ewing Golf Field Service Manager, and myself, to go to the golf course.

Dirk, with his foot in a boot due to recent foot surgery, and I showed up a few weeks later on a cold, rainy and blustery day. After assessing the system, Dirk began to work his magic. I gladly assumed the role of Dirk’s assistant. We discovered the problems that were happening were occurring because there were communication issues between the field controllers and
the central control system.

A few hours later, all of the controllers were communicating with the central control system properly and everything was back up and running. We then met Billy Cole, Raleigh Country Club’s Superintendent, who was thrilled to have his system back up and running. 

Since then, we have become friends with Billy and the team at Raleigh Country Club, seeing them on a regular basis. I am always excited to visit Raleigh Country Club. We later discovered that Billy is a big North Carolina Tar Heels fan.

This prompted Kevin Johnson, East Coast Golf Sales Manager for Hunter Golf, to invite Billy, Mike Shoun, Vice President of Agronomy for McConnell Golf (the company who owns the course), and myself to the Florida State vs. North Carolina football game in Tallahassee, Fla., last year.

The game happened to fall on the same weekend as the start of Apalachicola oyster season. Because of this, we stayed close to the ocean and spent the day before the game visiting and eating the best oysters in the world, right on the ocean. To cap off an already perfect weekend, North Carolina beat Florida State, making Billy a happy man.

This January, Raleigh Country Club decided to order the Hunter Pilot Control System and all new field controllers. I am happy to report that the new system is working great. It’s been a pleasure not only working with the team at Raleigh Country Club, but developing friendships there too.

Ewing and Hunter are honored to have been included in the irrigation upgrades thus far at Raleigh Country Club and we look forward to assisting them in the future.

By Michael Cambron, Ewing East Coast Golf Sales Manager

Prepping your irrigation system for winter can be as simple as following these tips!

Step 1: Check on your controller

These controller-winterizing tips can help you avoid unplanned encounters with critters and dicey electronic issues down the road.

First, do a general clean up of your controllers. Make sure the areas where the controllers are wired up are free of cobwebs, bugs, snakes, mice, spiders or anything else that doesn’t belong with the controller. Steve Sakurai, National Golf Products Sales Manager for Ewing Irrigation & Landscape Supply, recommends vacuuming the controller area to get rid of any small obstructions and filling the sweeps (the piping area that carries the controller wires through the concrete pedestal into the ground) with foam.

“You can help keep bugs and critters out of the inside of the controller by spraying expandable foam into the sweeps,” he explained.

Next, make sure all of the buttons on the faceplate work properly, and consider adding some Dielectric grease to the ribbon connectors inside the controller.

“Putting this on the connectors will improve the connection consistency between controller boards,” Sakurai said.

Step 2: Pay attention to your computer

Your central control system is an essential part of your irrigation system. Before you put it to sleep for the winter, make sure its data is prepped correctly. This could mean cleaning up data issues, preforming a disk clean up (the equivalent of defragging your computer) and implementing necessary updates.

This next step may seem obvious, but is often forgotten and can lead to unnecessary strife. Remember to blow out any dust in your computer—especially around the cooling fan. 

“If the cooling fan isn’t working due to a buildup of dust, the computer can overheat,” Sakurai said.

Lastly, take an extra 10 minutes to back up your database, create multiple copies and move them away from the central control system. The idea is to put the back up copy in an entirely different location so that if disaster strikes, like a fire, and your central control system is lost, you will still have a copy of
the database.

Step 3: Check the sprinkler heads

Lastly, go through your sprinkler heads to make sure they are functioning properly. Check to see if they are level and turn them on to verify the arc is correct.

“The point of this is to be sure they aren’t throwing water into people’s yards, streets or environmentally sensitive areas,”
Sakurai said.

Finally, do a quick count to ensure the nozzles in the field match the information that is currently in the database.

Be ready for spring!

Spring startup for your golf course irrigation system doesn’t need to be a nightmare. Taking a couple extra steps to properly winterize your system can save you hours of spring-season labor. So put to rest fears of mice eating your controller wires, lost data and angry neighbors and stop by your local Ewing store to pick up the products you need to keep your system shipshape. When next spring whistles its merry tune you’ll be whistling along while working to ready your irrigation system.

Kayli Hanley

Find your nearest Ewing location at EwingIrrigation.com/locations.

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