Throughout his 30-year career, Tim has been engaged in a wide variety of commercial and financial transactions in Asia, Europe and the United States. Tim’s practice focuses on the construction, financing and development of real property in Asia, with his clients being foreign property companies, developers, construction companies, private equity investors and financial institutions.

Over the past 15 years, Tim has developed a particular focus on the business of golf in the Asia-Pacific region. He regularly represents large area planners, designers, construction management companies, product suppliers, management companies and developers and financiers of golf course projects. He is also involved in championship management as he represents the group bringing the 2015 Presidents Cup to Korea.

Tim has been co-chair of the Real Estate Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea since 1995. He is Vice President and a Member of the Executive Council of the United Service Organization (USO) in Korea, former Chairman of the International Licensing Committee for The Club at Nine Bridges in Jeju, Korea, and was formerly Vice President and a Member of the Board of Governors of the Seoul Club.

Tim received a business degree from The University of Iowa in 1979 and his law degree from The John Marshall Law School in 1982.  In 1983, he was awarded a Certificate in Advanced International Studies from Salzburg University, Salzburg, Austria.  His wife Mihong is a former KBS broadcast journalist, former chief of staff to the Mayor of Seoul and is currently CEO of a public relations and political consulting firm. They have one daughter who is in 8th grade.

To contact Tim, please email him at tet@bkl.co.kr.

The topics discussed in this year’s conference included a review of research in Asia over the past six years, management and prevention of fungal diseases that infect turfgrass in Asia, wetting agents, management of soil moisture, evaluating light conditions, playability of golf course turf, fairway conversion to seashore paspalum using a simple and non-disruptive technique, and how the courses are maintained at multiple award-winning Siam Country Club.

As part of the 2012 Conference, 13^th March was designated an educational field day with equipment demonstrations from AGIF Members, an opportunity available only to AGIF Members. Members who participated in this field day included Bernhard & Company, Campey Turf Care Systems, Jacobsen, Syngenta and Toro.

Dave Harrison, Export Sales Manager of Campey Turf Care Systems told the AGIF, “I would like to thank you as AGIF, for inviting Campey Turf Care to display and present our Rotoknife aerator at the conference demo day in Pattaya. It was a unique opportunity to show our machine in action to so many superintendents and golf industry professionals from all over Asia, most of whom had never seen it before. I look forward to hearing about other AGIF events in the near future, and hope that we can be involved
in some capacity.”

CD-ROMs containing AGIF Members’ products and services were also distributed to all the participants at this conference.

Uploaded with permission from Asian Turfgrass Center

Technical staff from AGIF Members, namely Bernhard, Jacobsen and Toro, participated in a series of week-long courses in Kolkata, New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. They conducted training sessions on golf course equipment maintenance with a focus on maintenance of reel and rotary mowers, preventative maintenance and safe operation of turfgrass equipment, and delegates were encouraged to get their hands on reel set up and how to perform maintenance checks.

More than 100 delegates from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan participated in this first ever seminar – they ranged from golf course superintendents to mechanics to club general managers and even greens committee members. 2011 was the first year of what is hoped to be a three year education endeavor. AGIF hopes to continue support for this program and information on the 2012 program will be shared with all AGIF Members in due course as the Education sub-committee looks for expertise from within the AGIF membership to support these education sessions.

Steve Wilson from Bernhard said, “It was a wonderful opportunity to support the golf industry in India with much needed education. Delivering education was the first priority, however we were also able to meet golf course managers and expand our network within India. Being a member of the AGIF opened the door to this event. I’m not aware of any other organization in Asia that could have provided such an opportunity.”

Feedback from the delegates was extremely positive too. Comments like ‘the training was delivered at just the right level for year one” and “I’m looking forward to building my knowledge with next year’s training” were received.

To learn more about this training session, check out the following links:-

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/asianturfgrass/sets/72157628114647000/detail/ 
• http://www.randa.org/en/TheGolfCourse/The-golf-course/News/News/2011/November/Indian-Golf-Union.aspx
• http://www.blog.asianturfgrass.com/2011/12/turfgrass-teaching-in-india.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+viridescent+%28Viridescent+-+the+Asian+Turfgrass+Center+blog%29

The panel was jointly organized by GCSAA and CMAA China Chapter held alongside the Asia Golf Show and brought together industry leaders – Dominic Wall (R&A), Rhett Evans (GCSAA), Jonathan Smith (Golf Environment Organization) and Joe Steranka (PGA of America) – to discuss the importance of a sustainable approach to golf course maintenance while also touching on a subject of major importance to the Chinese golf industry, water conservation.

Speaking to a room full of interested golf club managers and operators, the panel discussed how golf clubs should address the environment, utilize limited water resources and outlined where managers and facilities can get insight, guidance, and certification that will make a positive impact on their respective club’s image and bottom line.

Dominic Wall shared information on water conservation and solutions and illustrated some successful case studies from Europe. Jonathan Smith also shared how clubs can run responsible yet a resource efficient business in our ecologically rich environment and provided information on their environment certification programs.

Dates of the 5-days training meetings are as follows:-

• East Zone (RCGC, Kolkata) – 7^th till 11^th November
• North Zone (Army Golf Course, New Delhi) – 14^th till 18^th November
• West Zone (BPGC, Mumbai) – 21^st till 25^th November
• South Zone (Eagleton, Bangalore) – 28^th November till 2^nd December

Check out IGU’s website at www.indiangolfunion.org for more information on this event.

The Asian Golf Industry Federation is proud to be associated with this program and we thank our members – Bernhard & Company, Jacobsen and Toro – for assisting to deliver the training sessions.

Alan is a main-board Director of Ransomes Jacobsen Ltd, a division of Jacobsen Textron. Originally from UK, he relocated with his family to Singapore in July 2011 to take up his new appointment as Managing Director for Asia Pacific.

He joined Textron in 1996 after having worked with their distributors in key account and sales management roles. From Regional Manager (UK) in Jacobsen division of Textron, he was appointed Manager UK Branches in year 2000, Sales Manager UK and Ireland in 2003, and Sales Director of the EMEA and India business in 2004. He has experience working with various environmental organizations when he was based in Europe.

Alan studied Agricultural Engineering in college – he subsequently received further training in business finance and general management, completing several Textron University courses in the US at the same time.

Notice of meeting and the various prescribed forms have been emailed to all AGIF members.

All members are reminded of the following important points:-

• Registrations for the meeting will commence at 2.15 pm – please be punctual.
• The member is allowed to send 1 corporate representative – who is the current corporate nominee as per the AGIF membership roll – to represent it at the meeting.
• For the purpose of this meeting only, in event the corporate nominee is not able to attend, the member can nominate another representative who is 21 years old and above to represent it at the meeting. The name of the representative should be submitted to the Secretariat no later than Thursday 13 October 2011.
• Only corporate nominees and / or their designated representatives or proxies are allowed admission to the meeting.
• Only Charter and Ordinary members have voting rights. Each member is allowed one vote.
• In event voting is required, voting by proxy for members who are not physically present will be allowed. The proxy, name clearly indicated on the prescribed Proxy Form, must be a Board of Committee Member.
• The positions opened for nominations and elections to the Board of Committee Members are those of President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and 4 to 8 Committee Members. All nominations must be completed on prescribed Nomination Forms and received by the Secretariat no later than Tuesday 11 October 2011.
• Any member desiring to submit at the AGM a motion shall give notice of such motion in writing to the Secretary within 10 days from 26 September 2011. Your motion(s) must be received by the Secretariat no later than Thursday 6 October 2011. Acknowledgement of receipt will be sent for motion(s) received within 2 working days; otherwise the motion(s) is / are deemed not received and hence will not be tabled at the AGM.
• It will be greatly appreciated members whose accounts are overdue can arrange to settle their accounts soonest. This is to avoid any technicalities and / or complications which may arise questioning the validity of your membership at the meeting.

We look forward to seeing you all at the Annual General Meeting!

Organized by the Philippine Turfgrass Association in cooperation with the Federation of Golf Clubs (Phils) and the Asian Golf Industry Federation, the event attracted more than 130 participants. Attendees travelled from as far away as Singapore, Vietnam, Korea and Hong Kong and included club owners, general managers and course superintendents. With a turnout better than expected, the conference room was filled with some standing to hear the various lectures on selection of grasses for the Philippines climate, drainage, tournament set up and preparation, and rules of golf for the superintendent. The AGIF provided support for Sittichai Dusadeeporn the General Manager of Course Maintenance at Siam Country Club. Sittichai provided two presentations sharing his years of experience preparing and setting up Siam Country Club for the Honda LPGA Tournament.

On the second day, participants headed out into the field to learn more about spraying and sprayer calibration, aerification techniques, and how to mark the golf course.

Thanks to the support of the Asian Golf Industry Federation, the 2011 PTA Golf Course Maintenance Management Conference was the largest and most well attended in the history of the Philippine Turfgrass Association. By supporting Sittichai’s trip, the AGIF was able to assist in building relationships between superintendents within the region helping to grow and share information between countries.