Keeping up with the Jones: One day in North Carolina at the U.S. Open

If you look back in the archives of Golfdom in the 1940s and 1950s, a regular feature Herb Graffis would write was called “Swinging around golf.” Graffis would write for a few pages about where he’d been, who he talked to and what he learned.

I’m going to steal a page from his book and report on one day in North Carolina, the Tuesday of U.S. Open week. I was joined by my colleagues Bill Roddy, group publisher, and Craig MacGregor, publisher. I won’t be able to go on for multiple pages like Graffis used to do, but here’s my version of “Swinging around golf” — Tuesday of the 2024 U.S. Open edition.

10:00 a.m. — We arrive at Envu headquarters in Cary, N.C. The team we meet with — Julie Groce, Mark Ford and Chad Noyes — have several things cooking, top-of-mind is their sponsorship of the crew and volunteers for the upcoming U.S. Senior Open at Newport (R.I.) CC.

“As Envu, we don’t have any restrictions,” Ford told me. Previously, when the company was a part of Bayer Environmental Science, it was harder for them to dedicate time and money to the industry. “Our mindset now is, (golf and lawn care) are our reasons for being.”

Look for James Hempfling, Ph.D., and Lindsey Hoffman Chappell, Ph.D., among the volunteer force for that tournament, in support of superintendent Chris Coen and his crew.

12:00 p.m. — We pull into Sipcam Agro’s American headquarters in Durham, N.C., to meet with Todd Mason and Elizabeth Taras. Mason’s energy is sky high as he tells us about two major plant purchases the company recently made in Mississippi, bringing the global company a manufacturing facility in the U.S. for the first time. He also hints about a product the company is developing for Poa annua control that will be available in the near future.

“I’ve seen the trials, and it is good … it is very, very good,” Mason told me. “Our researcher looked at me and said, ‘I think you’ve got something here.’” He says it’ll be especially helpful for superintendents in the southwest during overseeding season.

2:30 p.m. — Nufarm’s headquarters near the Raleigh airport is next, a meeting with Tracy Rich and Reuel Heyden. The company’s Anuew EZ liquid formulation has been selling like gangbusters, they tell me. They’ve also got two major product launches they’re anxiously awaiting the EPA to approve. At the end of the meeting, Heyden gave us a tour of the company’s on-site laboratories, which are massive and include labs dedicated to seed treatment, insecticides, herbicides and one labeled collaboration.

“Where great minds come together … to address today’s most complex challenges.” There are plans in the works to purchase land behind the facility to add test plots.

6:30 p.m. — We arrive in Chapel Hill, N.C., for a dinner with Mark LaFleur of Syngenta. LaFleur reports there’s been a major investment in upgrading the company’s Vero Beach, Fla., research laboratory, including doubling the area dedicated to turf test plots. LaFleur also hints at two new active ingredients coming from the company soon — a press release should be in my email inbox next month, he says.

On the drive home, curiosity got the best of me, and I looked at the Syngenta Global site to see if there was any news from the mothership in Basel, Switzerland. In May the company announced Tymirium, a nematicide and fungicide; and Plinazolin, a new active ingredient for pest control, especially useful to replace older chemistries that are showing resistance. I’ll keep an eye on this for further news.

It was a productive day in North Carolina. It will be interesting to see what the above companies will do for you, the superintendents, in the upcoming months and years. From just this one day alone, it’s clear to see there’s a lot in the pipeline.

And now, on to the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2!

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