Midwest June Monthly Meeting

Agenda

10:00 a.m. Registration

10:30 a.m. Education* (Fred Warner, MSU)

11:30 a.m. Shotgun Start (box lunch)

Pig Roast Reception and prizes following golf.

$115 per player, $75 for assistants and retired.
Includes lunch, golf and car, education, pig roast, and draught beer. 
$35 lunch and education only. 

Golf: Dom Grotti Championship (for Superintendents and their Assistants)

Non-Grotti players: we will conduct a blind draw for teams and prizes. 

Dom Grotti Championship: Champions are based upon the combined score of the Superintendent and Assistant minus their combined course handicap. This is a net score event. 

*Education: Nematodes: More Common Than You Probably Know

Nematodes are the most numerous animals on our planet and most people are unaware of this fact. They are found everywhere there is water (the soil is a great environment) and approximately 15,000 of the estimated 25,000 described species are parasites of animals (including man) and plants. The focus of this presentation will be the nematodes that feed on cool-season turfgrasses. The grasses grown on golf courses are hosts for a dozen or so kinds (genera) of plant-parasitic nematodes and evidence gathered in Michigan, in particular, suggests nematode numbers are on the rise especially on golf putting greens. Reasons will be provided to explain this phenomenon. Nematode management will be discussed as well as the importance of monitoring nematode populations. Participants who attend this presentation should leave with a better understanding of nematodes and why their presence should not be ignored.

Fred Warner is Academic Specialist and Nematode Diagnostician at Michigan State University