Former superintendent finds industry longevity and fulfillment leading a sod production company he established.
Modern Turf founder and President Hank Kerfoot, a sod farmer providing high-quality turfgrass in and around South Carolina and North Carolina, comes from a golf-rich family background. His father, who is 87 years old, is an accomplished golfer who attended Wake Forest and played golf with Arnold Palmer. Kerfoot grew up as a caddy for his dad at their local country club in Arlington, Virginia.
“I just grew up around golf grass,” Kerfoot says. “I started mowing lawns when I was 12 and started caddying when I was 12. I started working on a golf course when I was 15 and just always have had a little bit of a green thumb.”
Kerfoot adds that he barely graduated high school and spent several years afterward dabbling in different careers. From cooking to installing computer cables in old buildings in Washington, D.C., to working on golf courses, Kerfoot was looking for the right fit.
“I just kept coming back to golf courses,” he says. He decided to take community college classes so universities would consider accepting him, and he ended up going to what at the time was called Lake City Community College in Lake City, Florida.
To enroll at Lake City, applicants needed to have worked on a golf course for at least a year. “So, you couldn’t just graduate high school and decide you wanted to go into turfgrass,” Kerfoot says. “You had to have experience.”
Kerfoot appreciated the fact that students shared and applied the knowledge from their experiences working on golf courses in the classroom and into real life. He started the three-year program for the associate of science degree in golf operations when he was 23 years old. At that time, he had a lot of experience working on cool-season grasses in Virginia, Maryland and the Washington, D.C., area.
“By then I’d also worked as a bellman in the Florida Keys at the Ocean Reef Club,” he says. “I’d had a little taste of the South and had decided that I felt like there was more golf for more days of the year the farther south you went and more opportunities. I figured if I went to a southern school and I had northern experience, then I could go anywhere.”
Kerfoot completed internships at TPC Avenel in the Beltway area and TPC Prestancia in Sarasota, Florida. He worked at TPC Sawgrass throughout college. His first job out of college was in Bermuda working as the assistant golf course superintendent at Port Royal Golf Course for three years. Next, he moved to Charlotte where he was the superintendent at Carmel Country Club for four years.
Then, Kerfoot got involved in building golf courses. He helped build Firethorne Country Club in Charlotte and rebuilt Smoky Mountains Golf Club in Whittier, North Carolina. He got involved with a company that was going to buy, build and manage golf courses in the Carolinas. As they were looking for projects, the company sent Kerfoot to Puerto Rico to install a sod farm for a client there.
“I was always fascinated with new grasses,” he says. “I would find them, I would plant them, I would try to kill them — which I’m apparently successful at. But I would just try to learn about it because it’s just my thing.”
As he was working on the course in Puerto Rico, Kerfoot started thinking about what was next for him in his career. He and his wife, Mary, started looking at some new opportunities — perhaps owning a mom-and-pop golf course in Myrtle Beach.
Kerfoot says he loved being a golf course superintendent but thought sod farming would be intriguing because he could use all his knowledge and contacts to help him as he started. He and Mary were starting their family at the time, too, and he was excited about switching to a job that allowed him more time spent with them instead of traveling for work. The Kerfoots have three children, all young adults now: Henry, Sarah and Libby.
“We decided to look for some flat land in central South Carolina that had access to water and an interstate,” Kerfoot says. “We found the Rembert farm, our first farm and bought it in February 2000.” After a few years, they realized they needed more land and Kerfoot found another farm 10 miles down the road.
Kerfoot says continuing education is a must in the turfgrass industry. When he was in college and some late-afternoon classes were filled with explanations of new varieties, many of his friends would skip and go out to the bar for a beer. Kerfoot would sit in the front row trying to learn about all the new grasses.
“I knew what paspalum was before anybody could even say paspalum,” he jokes. “I was curious and just thought it was cool to hear the talks on new grasses.”
Kerfoot’s Lake City Community College roommate was John Holmes, now the president of Atlas Turf. “The turfgrass industry is a small fraternity. If you’ve been around long enough, it’s specialized,” Kerfoot says. “It’s highly intelligent people who are very motivated and very passionate about what they do.”
He estimates maybe 15 of his college classmates are still in the industry in golf or turfgrass. “I think the people that are in it for the long haul just have a genuine love for it,” he says.
In his early days as a sod farmer, Kerfoot became involved with Randy Graff, founder of Graff’s Turf Farm in Colorado, who discussed raising the prices of sod. He recalled that when he attended his first SC Sod Producers Association meeting around the same time, he heard that they hadn’t raised the prices of sod in almost 20 years. “I almost threw up because my business plan didn’t show that,” Kerfoot says. “As I became more involved, I ended up becoming the president of South Carolina Sod Producers and led it for almost 10 years straight.”
Kerfoot says he was outspoken and enjoyed being involved. At his first TPI meeting, he was almost recruited onto the board but he felt it was too early for him to contribute. Plus, he and Mary were raising three young children and he was getting his sod business up and running.
About 10 years ago, members started to recruit Kerfoot again to join TPI’s board. Now, he’s served on the executive committee, as president and as past president of the organization. He stint as president included the February 2020 TPI conference in Orlando as well as the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, his time on the board is nearing its end as the February 2022 TPI conference in San Diego approaches.
“It’s been a very enriching, very valuable process,” he says. “One, to be able to contribute to the greater good of the sod-producing community but then also the personal payback and what you get through, meeting regularly with other industry leaders throughout the world, particularly in the U.S. but also Canada and internationally as well.”
Serving on the board allowed him to broaden his horizons and enjoy being in a group where the goal is to make sod farmers comfortable sharing information with each other. When he was in the golf industry, everyone shared information with each other to make everybody better. He is trying to get that cooperation across the sod industry, which is more competitive because farmers are essentially competing for the same dollar.
“There’s a camaraderie but it’s not the same,” he says. “But when you go to TPI you can talk to a guy from Texas who grows the exact same grass as you do and you can talk about equipment, you can talk dollars and talk about things without feeling like you’re giving away your greatest trade secrets.”
He adds that younger generations don’t always see the value in associations because they can get information and network online or through social media. Kerfoot is hopeful things come full circle and younger generations realize the human condition makes us want to be in a room with other humans.
“That’s the magic of TPI,” he says. “We as the board always say, If we can just get them to come to one annual conference and let them see, smell, touch, feel and be around the camaraderie and the actual education you get from other people … For me, in my background with turfgrass that’s been from day one.”
Kerfoot was involved in theater in both high school and college. Part of what appealed to him about professional golf tournaments was the stage. The PGA Tour to him was like a great drama. “It’s impromptu in that you don’t know the outcome,” he says. “It’s great theater, especially if you love the game, and I have a deep love for the game (of golf).”
Kerfoot is thankful for being able to be outside, not in an office with four walls, and being able to interact with people. His experience caddying and working on different golf courses allowed him to learn what that atmosphere was like.
“I was very comfortable around the members and I just loved it, just the peace of it all and the beauty of being outside,” he says. “Also, the sensation of having really good greens. It all comes down to the greens. When you’re on a golf course you get judged by the putting greens. If you could manage the greens, then the golfers were happy.”
At Modern Turf, the core four employees — Kerfoot, Randy Allen, Buddy Smith and B.J. Haunert — are all former golf course superintendents. A few other staff members have worked on courses as well.
“We’ve had more on staff before who were golf course superintendents,” Kerfoot says. “It helps. We grow three different types of Bermudagrasses and we all do installs ourselves and participate. Some of us have been doing it for 20 years and we aren’t getting any younger.
“You gotta have someone that can walk the walk and talk the talk on a golf course, in my opinion, to be able to go out there and have credibility. You need that when talking with them about fertility, chemicals and plants and benefits and all that. And not just for the golf course superintendent, but when you’re out there planting them it’s like Christmas Day for these clubs when they are getting new greens.
“Golf is about greens. No matter what anybody tells you, it comes down to the greens.”
Kerfoot says that when Modern Turf installs new greens, it’s a great public relations opportunity for the company, even if the club has skilled laborers who could plant it without them, because their staff knows the ins and outs of the grass. Whether members or staff come out to help, their team has to know the lingo and how to maneuver around the course with maintenance etiquette to make sure their tractors and trucks don’t mess up the turf.
Modern Turf is innovative on the research side of the industry thanks to involvement with research trials. Currently, the research plots at the farm consist of Celebration X, an ultra-fine zoysia study, Iron Cutter Bermuda, paspalums from the University of Georgia and the 14069 zoysia line from NC State University. Kerfoot says they have planted Innovation Zoysia around those plots, as well as some Geo Zoysia.
He has a big interest in testing new grasses but didn’t like just looking at what he considers car hood-size sod plots. “It just didn’t tell me enough,” he says.
Kerfoot started talking with Sod Solutions president Tobey Wagner, University of Florida turfgrass researcher Kevin Kenworthy, his old roommate Holmes of Atlas Turf, and with JW Turf Farms in Florida to try to get bigger plots so they could take a better look at zoysias. “Whether we get a putting green variety out of them or not, I think it’s good exercise — and I’m sure we’ll get something out of it.”
Kerfoot believes allowing a harder look at a grass variety before it goes to production will help avoid issues in the future. “To get out in front of it and take a little bit of ownership of the research and to get into it will hopefully yield us some reward at the end. Maybe not necessarily exclusive — because that’s not always a good thing, I’ve learned that — but maybe at least a first right of refusal on something really good to have open up equity in would be a good thing.”
Kerfoot adds that you need good growers who you can trust to trade inventory with, as well as being able to market a new grass well to consumers. “That’s one of Sod Solutions’ greatest strengths, is the marketing,” he says. “You gotta have three things: well-marketed grass, really good grass and really good people growing it.”
Modern Turf has been a part of at least 10 First Tee projects across the Carolinas and Tennessee. Kerfoot donated sod for most of them, unless the projects were already well-funded. “I think everybody has to do that, no matter what industry you’re in,” he says. “Everybody should have a sense of duty to their community to give back.”
Every Saturday, Modern Turf donates a pallet of centipede grass to Food for the Soul, a local soup kitchen in Camden. Volunteers at the soup kitchen sell each piece of sod for $2, keeping the profit, and help load it into the buyer’s vehicle. Kerfoot says this is another easy way to give back that makes an impact towards meals.
Modern Turf has helped build around 20 Habitat for Humanity houses. Kerfoot says the company has volunteered to lay donated sod; other times, the company has donated sod and high schoolers who need service points have helped lay it.
Kerfoot is hopeful that whenever TPI travels for various conventions, they will take time as a group to contribute or volunteer with a service project. Kerfoot also looks forward to staying involved with community service projects similar to the Sergeant Jasper Golf Course, a golf course revitalization project where he donated Sunday Ultra-Dwarf Bermudagrass greens and installation efforts last spring.
Cecilia Brown is the media and content manager for Sod Solutions.
All fairways and greens will be re-grassed in time for the course’s October PGA Tour event.
TPC Summerlin, a private 18-hole golf course located minutes from downtown Las Vegas and host of the PGA Tour’s Shriners Children's Open, announced renovation plans that are scheduled to begin April 15. Reopening is scheduled for the start of the Shriners Children’s Open Oct. 3-9.
“This is an exciting time for our club, our members and our community,” TPC Summerlin GM Brian Hawthorne said. “TPC Summerlin has become synonymous with a world-class golf experience and we truly believe this long-awaited renovation will not only improve the on-site experience locally but will boost the appeal for our city when millions tune-in for the Shriner’s Children’s Open next fall.”
The renovation calls for TPC Summerlin, part of the TPC Network — owned, operated and licensed by the PGA Tour — to re-grass all fairways and greens to newer improved varieties. Throughout the renovation, TPC Summerlin’s practice facility, Lifestyle Center, tennis courts, pool and clubhouse will remain open and available to members.
The existing fairways are made up of the originally planted 419 hybrid Bermuda and are set to be planted with a newer variety of Bermuda called Bandera. This variety is known for its aggressive growth habit and early spring green up and fall color retention. Its aggressive style will lend itself to faster divot recovery and improved wear tolerance, offering a more uniform experience for play. Additionally, all bentgrass greens will be re-grassed to an improved variety called Dominator, which is a blend of two bentgrasses selected for their proven performance in warmer climates and exceptional density and texture providing superior ball roll characteristics.
TPC Summerlin was designed from rugged desert terrain by golf course architect Bobby Weed, meandering through arroyos and canyons, with striking flora, numerous water features, an abundance of honey mesquite and pine trees contrasting dramatically with undisturbed desert washes.
Continuity and renovations are concepts that often don’t go together in the private club world. Guy Cipriano returns to Sewickley Heights Golf Club to observe what happens when the same group combines for another big project.
They skipped the introductions and went right to the business of renovating bunkers.
In a private club world often filled with design and construction turnover, Sewickley Heights Golf Club in suburban Pittsburgh represents a laudable exception. When a team arrived to begin work Sept. 7, five key figures in the project had already worked together to improve playing surfaces on the 60-year-old club.
Sewickley Heights successfully executed a complex greens renovation in 2016 that involved stripping Poa annua off putting surfaces, rebuilding the subsurface elements and placing the removed Poa annua sod on the rebuilt greens. The effort was orchestrated to ensure the club had the proper infrastructure to support elite Poa annua greens. Members who demand ultra-slick Poa annua greens are as Pittsburgh as black, gold and sandwiches topped with fries.
When Sewickley Heights leaders started pondering a bunker renovation late last year, they entrusted director of golf David Malatak and superintendent Randall Pinckney to handle planning and logistics. The pair turned to Western Pennsylvania-based architect Jim Cervone and Aspen Corporation, a West Virginia-based company with a major Pittsburgh presence, for the design and construction. Aspen assigned Justin Chapman as project superintendent. A former mine ventilation engineer, Chapman joined the Aspen team in 2016. His first golf project? The greens renovation at Sewickley Heights guided by … yep, Cervone.
Pinckney and Malatak were in their same roles in 2016, too. And another sign of the continuity at Sewickley Heights: assistant superintendent Corey Cheza has been with the club since 2016.
“A lot of Aspen’s work is niche and we do have a lot of repeat customers,” Chapman says, “but when we come back to a club, it’s never the same team. I think it says a lot about Randall and Dave.”
Pinckney and Cheza worked together at Treesdale Golf & Country Club, where Pinckney led the maintenance of 27 holes before arriving at Sewickley Heights. Pinckney reports to Malatak, who started working in the pro shop in 1990 and has worked as the director of golf since 2015. Pinckney’s first head superintendent job was at Piney Branch (Maryland) Golf Club, where Cervone guided a renovation in the early 2000s.
Even the writer who covered the greens renovation is the same. Five years after visiting Sewickley Heights for the initial story, I returned to club in October to see the construction. I stood in a semi-circle with Pinckney, Cheza, Malatak, Cervone and Chapman on the putting green discussing the project before we toured the course. Trust and continuity represented themes of our conversation.
“We all know each other well enough to have a heart-to-heart if there’s something going on that we don’t like,” Pinckney says. “We just had one recently. We have to trust each other and getting that upfront to the start the project off is big for the club.”
Cervone is a deeply knowledgeable and omnipresent figure on project sites. He visited Sewickley Heights more than 40 times during the greens renovation and he was approaching 10 visits in the first month of the bunker project. During those occasions he can’t be at Sewickley Heights, he relies on the familiar quartet to provide candid updates and feedback.
“We all make each other look good,” Cervone says. “That’s the trust factor. I’m not out here hoping they are going to get something right. It’s always right.”
Unfortunately, architect, contractor, committee and even superintendent ego are part of the industry. Sometimes the consequences of renovation ego negatively affect the morale and finances of a club. Malatak succinctly says me-first attitudes don’t benefit anybody involved with club construction: “What’s the purpose of that? What good would that be?”
The bunker renovation at Sewickley Heights should make a Jim Harrison-designed course tidily maintained by Pinckney, Cheza and team further stand out in the crowded Pittsburgh private club market. Sewickley — population 3,761 — supports three private clubs constructed in different eras, giving it one of the best private club-to-resident ratios in the country.
Cervone’s plan addresses maintenance, playability and strategy. Softening severe noses and raising floors will allow Pinckney’s team to use mechanical rakes more frequently for daily maintenance. A few bunkers will be surrounded by fairway on the low side, while an approach bunker on the par-3 13th hole will be surrounded by fairway on all sides. Sewickley Heights will have 66 bunkers when work is complete.
The Aspen crew reconstructed the bunkers around play this fall. Thoughtful communication such as weekly updates from Malatak and digital messaging on carts alerting golfers as they approached a hole with active construction benefited all parties on the course. Work also includes the addition of 10 new tees.
“One thing we had to tell people is that this is not a greens project, this is a bunker project, and we won’t be as invasive as that project,” Malatak says. “That made a lot of people comfortable with what we were doing.”
Construction, golf-friendly temperatures, and maintaining mature and new turf meant a hectic fall for Pinckney and Cheza, although the pair seems wired to handle continual activity. “To keep doing these projects and to raise the level of this club … we take pride in that,” Cheza says.
Being busy, especially when you’re surrounded by quality people, beats the alternative.
“The monotony of doing maintenance every day can be boring and I don’t want to be bored,” Pinckney says. “It’s one thing when you’re just maintaining, but when the club wants to put money into something and put it together right with the right people, it’s fun to see it come together.”
Temperatures are dropping and snow is fast approaching — if it hasn’t already dropped on your course. What sort of winter risk assessment should you take?
The United States loves golf. In 2020 alone, 24.8 million people played a round on an American course, according to the National Golf Foundation. In summer, golf is a glorious sport and time can be spent enjoying a round or two in the beaming sunshine. During winter, however, especially in more northern states, golf courses can be dangerous if the weather is not planned for correctly.
Creating an effective winter risk assessment and management strategy is core to the safety and success of your golf course in the colder months.
Why golf courses need winter risk assessments
In winter, cold temperatures cause road surfaces to freeze, snow to fall and, in some cases, freezing rain. With colder weather comes greater risk of slips, trips and falls that affect the users of your golf courses. The top cause of nonfatal injury in the United States is falling — with more than 8 million injuries caused by one just in 2019, according to the National Safety Council.
Winter weather can also cause vehicle accidents, whether it’s coming off a road or sliding on black ice in a parking lot. Cold weather brings with it a multitude of risks, which is why a winter risk assessment is necessary.
What should a winter risk assessment cover?
For golf courses, there are two main areas that need to be covered in a winter risk assessment: the course itself and the clubhouse. As golf courses contain a variety of landscape features, it’s important that a proactive risk assessment is in place. This should include:
Plans for snow and other extreme weather
Snow is prevalent in some states with colder weather, but it’s important to prepare for any eventuality. As part of your winter risk assessment, you may engage the services of a snow clearing contractor, especially if you don’t have the resources to invest in your own heavy machinery.
You should also prepare for various levels of weather warning. Refer to your local state’s weather report, and plan how you want to react to a potential warning of snow, and what mitigatory processes you may need to put in place.
Other extreme weather, such as heavy freezing rain or intense hail, also needs to be considered. These can often cause greater disturbance and more damage.
Plans for cold weather and snow removal
Whether you use traditional salt — or are now using beet juice for a more environmentally friendly and effective gritting alternative — it’s important to prepare for snowy conditions.
By analyzing the road surface temperature, weather conditions and overnight forecasts, you can find out when it’s best to grit. This way, you’re only handling snow removal when you need to, while ensuring that your facilities are as safe as possible.
As part of your risk assessment, consider:
Risk assessments should always cover how you communicate with people in worst-case scenarios. Whether it’s to tell them that the course is closed for a while, or to communicate to golfers that snow is coming and they should return to the clubhouse as soon as possible, it’s important to plan for all eventualities.
As well as communicating to members, you may need to find a way to share a statement with stakeholders whose contact information you might not have on hand.
Another part of emergency communications is to staff, both those on and off the clock. Are some of your staff able to easily get to the course to assist with snow removal and preparing surfaces for safe transportation, if need be, or do you need to procure a contractor?
This winter, make sure you plan properly and keep your course safe so that people can continue to enjoy a round or two, no matter the weather!
Adam Brindle is the CEO and founder of Japanese Knotweed Specialists and Grounds Care Group then that would be absolutely perfect.
Regional event attracted a passionate crowd of almost 2,000 people.
There have been more successful events in the nearly 60-year history of the Carolinas Golf Course Superintendents Association Conference and Trade Show, but likely never one more significant than this year’s. Nearly 1,800 people attended the Carolinas GCSA comeback show in Myrtle Beach, S.C. from Nov. 15 to 17. After a year off because of the COVID-19 pandemic, that turnout and the breadth of industry partner support confirmed the event’s status as the pre-eminent regional gathering for golf course maintenance professionals.
Yet Carolinas GCSA executive director Tim Kreger says there was something even more notable about this year’s conference.
“For once, we didn’t break any records, but by any numerical measure — attendance, exhibitor support, overall participation, you name it — it was still a hugely successful show,” Kreger said. “Most important though, we brought people together again, face to face, and they loved it. We all loved it. From start to finish, the atmosphere was incredible.”
Like so many organizations in so many industries, the association canceled last year’s in-person show, its largest revenue generator and, in its place, staged an online alternative, Conference Comes to You. Selling more than 2,200 seminar seats, Conference Comes to You was among a host of innovations and adaptations that enabled the association to get through the peak of the pandemic without tapping into financial reserves.
“None of what happened last year and what happened at the show this year would be possible if there was a weak link in the chain,” Kreger said. “Where we are today as an association is because our members, our industry partners and our researchers are in sync and totally get the idea that real success is a collaborative effort. And that’s not new in the Carolinas, it has been the culture all along. We are extremely grateful.”
As much as this year’s show was a long-awaited opportunity for friends and colleagues to reunite, it was also the first chance to shake hands for many new friends made over social media during the pandemic. During the show and in the days afterwards, Twitter was covered with photos and messages of these friends meeting for the first time.
As Kristie Hurst — one half of the Missouri-based musical duo, Midlife, which played at Carolinas Night at the Beach — wrote: “I don’t think @CarolinasGCSA and @TKCarolinasGCSA could have put on a better show this week, and I’m already jonesing to go back next year. I finally got to meet my #TurfTwitter family! Life is good.”
Among other highlights of this year’s Conference and Trade Show:
Feel like you missed out? Mark your calendar: Next year’s Carolinas GCSA Conference and Trade Show is scheduled to be back in Myrtle Beach from Nov. 14 to 16.