It was sad news to hear yesterday that Dr. Beard had passed away. As everyone has said, he was a true legend in the turfgrass research field. Dr. Beard has a great history with northern Michigan as well as with Traverse City Golf & Country Club and I got to fit into that his history a few times and find out what a kind man he was.
I met Dr. Beard when I was an assistant at Crystal Downs Country Club. He was in contact with Mike Morris the superintendent about conducting some green speed research for him, I think the year was 1992. I was lucky enough to perform that research for Mike and Jim every morning for two weeks on our nursery green. Jim had a summer home in Leelanau County and was also a past member of our local chapter, The Northern Michigan Turf Managers Association.
In 2001 the chapter gave Ed Karacheski the Distinguished Service Award. Ed was the golf pro and superintendent at TCGCC for over 30 years and was a founding member of the NMTMA. Ed's son Jim accepted the award as Ed had died a few years earlier. Dr. Beard sent a letter to the chapter describing the history he had with Ed, MSU and Traverse City Golf & CC.
Jump back to 1963 when Dr. Beard planted his first test plots for Michigan State University in Traverse City. Here is a link to that letter
Beard History at TCGCC.
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Dr. Beard at TCGCC during the MSU Field Day in 1972. Our tennis courts currently reside there now.
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| The first snow mold research trials |
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Fine fescue treatment trials near 15 tee and not pictured to the left of this were the first glyphosate research trials in the country.
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Seed mixtures trials
Now jump ahead to 2008. After attending one of Dr. Beard's seminars, I introduced myself and invited him back to the golf course because you could still see the rough bluegrass trials he planted with Dr. Rieke in many fairways and I thought he might like the tour. Jim contacted me in 2010 and wanted to see the course and was wondering if his son and granddaughter could play golf while we toured and had lunch. She played golf for Texas A&M and shot 74 that day. It was a really bad summer patch year on two of my worst draining fairways so although I wanted the place to look perfect, I took this time to talk about my issues and challenges. |
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| Dr. Beard and Ed Karcheski 1972 |
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| Dr. Beard and me in the same location 2010 |
Rest in peace Dr. Beard and thank you for your time.
Steve Hammon
