Contact: Sammy McDavid
Photo by: Megan Bean
STARKVILLE, Miss.--The Mississippi State University Golf Course is being showered with support by a leading international turf and landscape management company.
The Toro Co.'s giving program of Bloomington, Minn., recently donated a control system upgrade for the irrigation system serving the 18-hole, par 72 university course. Pensacola, Fla.-based Jerry Pate Turf and Irrigation Inc. provided professional services to assist in the system's installation.
The approximately $125,000 in-kind gift has resulted in significant improvements to the central and satellite controllers. The underground sprinkler web tracks throughout the nearly 7,000-yard layout situated along state Highway 182 East.
"This is a major upgrade for us and we are most grateful," said course superintendent Pat Sneed. "While Toro has been a long-time contributor to the course, this is their most generous assistance to date."
Sneed said the new equipment already has helped enhance training provided by the university's nationally recognized sports and turf management academic program. Several currently enrolled majors gained valuable "hands-on" experience by installing the controllers with the assistance of the Jerry Pate professionals, he explained.
Opened to the public in 1986, the MSU course is located three miles east of the Starkville campus on former U.S. Highway 82. After being expanded and extensively renovated in the late 1980s, it won praise from Golfweek and Golf Digest magazines as one of the premier public courses in the United States.
Golfweek also has included it among the 10 best collegiate courses in the Eastern region.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For additional information, telephone Sneed at (662) 325-8018.