The turfgrass experts of the future will be “getting their feet wet” in San Diego at two student competitions aimed at creating interest, expanding knowledge and building relationships, all related to golf course maintenance.
A new event this year at the 2025 GCSAA Conference and Trade Show is Tuesday’s first-ever National Turfgrass Science Invitational, an FFA Career Development Event that will include 15 teams from across the country. Each team has four high school FFA agricultural education members. The 60 students — who will be very visible during the conference in their blue FFA jackets — are coming from Alabama, Arizona, California, Kansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Wisconsin.
Competition begins this morning with a 100-question knowledge test and case studies at the Marriott Marquis from 8 to 11:30 a.m. The students then will travel to Marbella Country Club for a skills practicum.
“Marbella is about an hour away,” says Leann Cooper, GCSAA’s director of First Green and Workforce Development. “It’s beautiful. These kids are in for a treat and Marbella is rolling out the welcome wagon for us.”
The skills practicum will challenge their ability to identify turfgrass, equipment and inputs and even give students a hands-on chance to learn how to cut cups and take on other playing surface set-up techniques.
Similar competitions have been contested at the state level, but this is FFA’s first national competition. GCSAA is collaborating with FFA to give high school students a chance to learn about the career opportunities in the turf industry.
“We want to make sure we’re making an impact, and we want to start when they’re young enough to make decisions on where they want to go,” says Cooper.
Also collaborating with GCSAA and FFA is the Sports Field Management Association, which will alternate with GCSAA in hosting the competition at each association’s annual conference: SFMA will host in 2026 and GCSAA will host again in 2027. Winners of this year’s competition will be announced at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the GCSAA Services Booth on the Trade Show floor.
As the FFA awards ceremony comes to a close, the Turf Bowl activities will get started for collegiate teams from 29 universities that have gathered in San Diego. The 31st annual Turf Bowl includes 76 teams that will compete with 276 participants — the highest numbers of teams and competitors since 2012. Some universities have sent more than one team, with up to four members per team.
Turf Bowl activities start with a luncheon at noon Wednesday for team members, advisers and others followed by the competition from 1-4 p.m. Students will identify turf, weed, turfgrass disease and insect samples in multiple-choice and sample-identification formats.
Diana Kern, GCSAA’s senior manager of CTEM Certification and Certificate Programs, has organized the competition since 2009. This will be her final year as organizer; she’ll turn her full attention to her other duties, such as the growing CTEM program. The Turf Bowl will fall under the direction of Cooper’s group starting next year.
For Kern, the chance to be a part of students’ first taste of turfgrass management will be hard to give up.
“The excitement of the Turf Bowl and the students — it’s a fun event,” Kern says. “I will miss that. I enjoy working with the students, I enjoy working with the faculty advisers, they’re great.”
Winners will be announced at Thursday’s Send-off Celebration.
The first Turf Bowl took place in 1995, with the first four annual events consisting of participants competing as individuals. In 1999, the competition changed to a team format.
Participation has increased from the 2024 Turf Bowl competition in Phoenix, when 245 participants competed from 28 universities. That year had 63 teams.
The competition is presented in partnership with John Deere. Leah Brilman, Ph.D., director of Turfgrass Product Management and Technical Services-DLF, and Gwen Stahnke, Ph.D., retired instructor of turfgrass management at Walla Walla Community College, Wash., will again be there to help facilitate the competition.
Organizers thanked Christian Bowman, Ph.D., Marcel Derendorf and Jim Baird, Ph.D., all at the University of California-Riverside, for growing and collecting most of the samples. Ambika Chandra, Ph.D., of Texas A&M University AgriLife Research & Extension, Dallas, provided zoysiagrass samples.
Darrell J. Pehr is GCM's science editor.