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VIRGINIA TURFGRASS JOURNAL: Mike Goatley, Jr., Ph.D., Professor and Extension Turfgrass Specialist, Virginia Tech

The 2023 50th Anniversary of the Turfgrass Research Center provided the opportunity for one of the largest Field Day crowds in many years to return to Blacksburg for the two days of festivities on August 28th and 29th. The formal part of the two-day program kicked off at 3 p.m. on August 28th at the Virginia Tech Golf Course with the second annual Goatley Rules Golf tournament. This format is designed to make the players both curse and smile as they tackle the unique shot challenges presented by Goatley and the VT Turf Team at each of the VT GC’s nine holes in what is Goatley’s own version of a ‘superintendent’s revenge’ tournament. The tournament is also a great way for the golfers to meet and greet essentially every single member of the VT Turf Team that serve as the hosts at every hole. Many thanks to the Virginia Tech Recreational Sports program for giving VT Turf the golf course from 3-6 p.m. on the 28th, and especially to golf superintendent Jason Ratcliff and golf professional Christine Lovrine for not only putting up with the shenanigans on the course, but for supporting them wholeheartedly! The winning team in this year’s Goatley Rules Golf challenge was Dr. Cale Bigelow, Dr. David Chalmers, Sam Green, and Adam Nichols. And what is often overlooked but is so very important for our program, the fees for the tournament generates an additional $2000 of support to be used by the Virginia Tech Turfgrass Research Center.

After the tournament, the focus shifted to the Virginia Tech Holtzman Alumni Center where, due to the generosity of our sponsors, the Virginia Turfgrass Foundation and the VT Turfgrass Team were able to provide a happy hour and banquet for all of our out-of-town guests. Due to the generosity of our sponsors, approximately 165 people drank and dined, filling the alumni center to capacity. There were many familiar faces in the crowd from recent field days, but best of all was seeing some older faces that had not been able to make it to Blacksburg in some time, and a major reason why they were there was to visit with three very special guests: Dr. Dick Schmidt, Dr. Jack Hall, and the aforementioned Dr. David Chalmers. We also had two of our technicians that warranted quite a bit of attention since everyone knew how important they were in getting things done: Dickie Shepherd and George Stanger.

As a group we enjoyed a walk down memory lane with a video featuring photographs from the VT turfgrass program from its inception in the 1950s to present day, but with special emphasis on the field days and activities at the Turfgrass Research Center since its founding in the early 70s. We celebrated those that are no longer with us (of the VT faculty and staff, there were numerous images displayed and personal tributes that I overheard of men such as John Shoulders, Houston Couch, Wayne Bingham, A.J. Powell Jr., Linc Taylor, Tommy Davis, Rod Youngman, and Charlie McCoy), as well as many of our graduate students (several of which returned to Blacksburg for the event) and a few others whose schedules did not allow them to make it to campus at this time (Erik Ervin and David McKissack). But most of all, it really was great to have the alums of all ages from our undergraduate program return to campus to visit with Dick, Jack, and Dave, and then stick around to see the exciting research programs of the current VT faculty, staff, and graduate students. Turfgrass alum Mike Johnson closed the evening by honoring Schmidt, Hall, and Chalmers by presenting each of them with a framed print of Smyth Hall.

The Research Field Day events of August 29th kicked off at 7 a.m. with the arrival of our vendors setting up just outside of the Schmidt Pavilion at the TRC. It was the first time we have actively solicited and promoted a vendor component for Field Day in several years and given the success of this year’s program, we will definitely be doing it again and hopefully expanding it in its value to both our attendees and vendors alike in the future. At 8:45 a.m. we had a welcome from the Director of the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Dr. Mike Evans, and at 9 a.m. a crowd of over 175 turfgrass professionals from all industry segments dispersed into one of three tour groups (Golf Turf, Sports Turf, Lawn/Sod Production) for a walking tour of the TRC research trials. The groups saw first-hand the research plots, the technologies being evaluated, and got to meet in person the rising young stars of the turfgrass program in our graduate students.

There will always be plenty of things to see at Field Day with standard performance trials on cultivars, chemistries, and maintenance strategies, but some of the highlights of this year’s research tours were updates on the applications of precision agriculture strategies and the use of spray drones in turfgrass systems, continued improvements in the understanding of pollinator protection strategies from the application of pesticides, and for the first time in 2023, the potential for using lasers in turfgrass weed control. After completion of the field tours, the new Virginia Agriculture Experiment Station Director, Dr. Mary Burrows, gave the crowd a warm welcome and an update on Virginia Tech and Virginia agriculture during lunch. Dr. Burrows told the group that in doing her research about the value of turfgrass for the state of Virginia, she was taken aback by the scope of its economic impact, a point that seems to fly under the radar for many.

I offer my personal thanks in particular to Brandyn Baty, CD Prillaman, and Jeff Everhart of the Virginia Turfgrass Foundation for all they did in the organization and delivery of so much of the event. And it remains a pleasure to partner with a fantastic team of colleagues and friends in our program such as Shawn and Whitnee Askew, Alejandro Del Pozo, Jeff Derr, Jon Dickerson, Lisa Goatley, Kevin Hensler, John Hinson, Tom Kuhar, David McCall, Adam Nichols, Travis Roberson, Dan Sandor, and Xunzhong Zhang, and all of their students who are being mentored by the very best. Thanks to all the vendors that provided the financial support to make this whole thing possible, and most especially thanks to those of you that took the time during a very busy period on your calendar to join us and celebrate 50 years of research excellence at the Virginia Tech Turfgrass Research Center.

Hold these dates on your calendar for 2024 — August 26 – 27 — in Blacksburg! We are already meeting to discuss how to make next year’s events even bigger and better for everyone.