11/16/2019 - By Harrell's

Let’s get something straight right off the bat: Kyle Callahan is a player on Team Latshaw.

He was among the group of interns Paul B. Latshaw hired at Muirfield Village GC when he was a young turfhead from Oklahoma State. Then he moved to work with another Latshaw progeny, Jake Gargasz, at Crooked Stick. (Callahan says Gargasz, who may be the most underrated super in the nation, earned the nickname MacGyver for coming up with ideas like HDPE turning boards.) Then, with some support from Paul B., Jake and other members of the clan, he landed at Victoria National Golf Club in the agronomic no-man’s land of southern Indiana.

I will forgive you if you haven’t heard of Victoria National because it’s also thoroughly underrated. But, it’s #43 on Golf Digest’s best in the U.S. list for a reason and it’s perhaps one of Tom Fazio’s most interesting – and hardest – designs. It’s notable that the facility is one of the cornerstones of the Dormie Network, the relatively new ownership group that’s focusing on high-end destination clubs like Ballyhack, Hidden Creek and the namesake Dormie Club. 

In his first four years at VNGC, Callahan gained a reputation for first-quality conditions for members and as host for a springtime Web.com Tour event. Then everything changed: Web.com became the Korn Ferry Tour and Victoria National was named as the championship site for the next decade. Oh, and the dates moved to August. Did I mention that southern Indiana has roughly the same brutal climate as Louisville?

I was fortunate to spend a couple of days with Kyle and his staff (including his remarkable superintendent Nick Krysinski) during prep week. Two things: 1. Callahan has an awesome team. 2. He’s willing – in true Latshaw fashion – to outwork all of them.

How did you prepare differently this time?

Everything was different. The way I was taught by Paul and Jake is you start your agronomic plan from the tournament date and work both directions. You have to plan your key spray just before the event and work backwards and forwards from there. With the tournament in the spring everything was easier. We were only dealing with dollar spot and red thread. After a few years of hosting we had it dialed to wake up the turf up early in the spring and have it primed up for the event. Then the rest of the plan was after the tournament. Going to August changed everything.

It’s crazy because we’ve already lost an hour of sunlight. I should be pushing the turf to start recovering and get ready for fall and instead we’re doing the exact opposite. It’ been difficult but it’s worked out so far.

What was the one most critical thing you did this year?

Mentally preparing for what we were getting into. You know it’s going to be a long season regardless of whether you have a tournament or not in southern Indiana. But to try to have quality golf conditions through the summer and then still peak at the right time in August is hard. 

The last 60 days have been the toughest. You know those days where it’s raining and it would be a perfect day to go home? Well those are also the perfect days to get more work done inside to prepare. That part has been the most challenging because mentally we had to just keep going.

What role does your Harrell’s rep, Matt Schreiber, play in the process?

Matt’s been phenomenal. In general, we’re really blessed down here to have salespeople who have been superintendents. I think having someone who’s been in our shoes helps. It’s so good having people like Matt and even (Harrell’s golf sales VP) Greg Nicoll…they get it. You text them at 5 a.m. and they reply. You text them at 9 at night and they reply. They’re here to help. That’s big to us that they don’t treat it like a Monday-to-Friday gig. They’re there for us. That’s huge. 

Our goal is pristine conditions. We have to have an alliance with right companies like Harrell’s, BASF, Bayer, and Syngenta who want to be on that train with us. It’s so important. 

You’re using Amino Pro V in an interesting way. Tell us about that. 

It’s still a new product to me and normally you’re a little hesitant to commit to something new before a big event, but we decided to put it in the rough with our fungicides. By adding Amino Pro V to a fungicide spray in the rough we see an extra 10 days of coverage. When you’re already on a 21-28 day application window and you’re trying to keep rough healthy – especially during an event like this – if we can prolong that to 28-35 days, it saves labor and makes timing and watering in more flexible. We have 55 acres of rough and we’ve found that putting a half-ounce (.5 oz/) per thousand of Amino Pro V in the tank has just been a home run. 

How else did the Amino Pro V help?

We knew going into this tournament it was going to be hot, humid and succulent so we wouldn’t have much control on having firm greens and fairways. Mother Nature is going to make that call. 

So, what’s our next best defense? It’s going to be the rough. For us the question was, how could we get the rough thick and healthy and make that our “penal”?  We put an extra emphasis on the rough. It was particularly tricky since we didn’t want to fertilize it and get too much growth. Instead we added Amino Pro V to the tank with a few other products to get the super healthy rough we wanted…and it went really well.

What about next year?

I think the biggest thing we have to figure out is what fungicides worked best and how we can use the amino products to get the applications just right. Utilizing our big Harrell’s products just a little bit later instead of earlier is probably the biggest thing. 

You know it’s really just about taking notes and getting better. Everything we do in this profession is about getting just a little better next year.

Tell us about the Dormie Network.

There’s a certain group of golfers out there and they travel. A lot of them fly charter. They want to be able to go somewhere cool. Victoria National has always been a hidden gem but we’re breaking that mold with Dormie because those people want to come here to play. We want to welcome them and make them feel great. If you look at the most successful clubs out there, they know who they are and they’re not apologetic about it. At Dormie Network we know who we are, who we want to be and we don’t apologize for it!

The amount of energy that’s come into our program from Dormie is fantastic. They have a vision and, when you really dig into it, Dormie wants to invest. Having an owner that wants to invest in the infrastructure is huge. That’s where I think Dormie separates themselves. They’re not a management company and it’s not about making money at this stage. It will be eventually, but right now you have to spend money to make money. That’s been great for us. 

Last question. What’s one really important lesson that you took away from your time with Paul and Jake and other Latshaw-style leaders?

If you don’t try something on a small scale, you’ll never know. If you at least try it on a small scale you’re gonna learn. Guys like Matt Shaffer, Jeff Corcoran, John Zimmers, Russ Myers, Paul Latshaw, Dick Bator … they’re never afraid to try something. But they’re smart enough to do it on a smaller scale so they can minimize the mistakes. 

Really that’s it…it’s all about minimizing mistakes. It’s okay to make a mistake because that’s how you learn. 

So it’s terrific to kill some grass but just don’t kill all of it?

Exactly! Paul Latshaw and Jake always told me the best grass growers were the ones that were the best at killing it because they learn what not do to. Best lesson ever!