Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Our initial meeting scheduled for March of 2020 was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A small subset of the group (Koch from Wisconsin, Bonos from Rutgers, and Miller from Missouri) initiated a small dollar spot sampling and sequencing project in the summer and fall of 2020. A new 'planning' meeting was held on March 9th, 2021 to plan for collaborative, multi-state research and related activities during the summer of 2021.

• Short-term outcomes: Two field projects were initiatied in 2021 at multiple sites including Clemson, Connecticut, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin. No immediate short-term outcomes were available as of writing this report since one study just completed its first year of data collection and the second study was installed in anticipation of collecting data in the summer of 2021.
• Outputs: One study was initiated in 2021 that generated data that will be used to generate reports. This study is referred to as the 'Combined Cultural Practices Study' and was performed at Clemson, Connecicut, Kansas State, Massachusetts, Ohio State, Penn State, Virginia Tech, and Wisconsin. All sites ended data collection on October 1st and will be sending their data for analysis to Koch at Wisconsin in the coming weeks. A second study was planted in the late summer and early fall of 2021 and is referred to as the 'Resistant Cultivar Study' and is being performed at Kansas State, Michigan State, Massachusetts, Penn State, Rutgers, Wisconsin and at a United States Golf Association research plot in Pinehurst, North Carolina. Data will be collected for this study in 2022 and 2023.
• Activities: In addition to the two studies discussed in the 'Outputs' section, approximately 36 isolates of C. jacksonii (causal agent of dollar spot) were collected from different cultivars in the summer and fall months in 2020 by researchers at Wisconsin, Rutgers, and Missouri. These isolates were all shipped to Rutgers where they will be sequenced to assess for any genetic differences in isolates collected from between the two seasons. In addition, a survey of golf course superintendents is being developed that will inquire about the factors they use to select creeping bentgrass cultivars for renovation projects on their golf course, with the goal of identifying roadblocks to increased adaptation of host resistance as a meaningful dollar spot management practice on golf courses.
• Milestones: The COVID-19 pandemic slowed down our progress in 2020, but we made significant progress in 2021 and have studies that will address each of the project's 5 objectives in place or in planning over the next year.

The NC1208 group will continue to collaborate on a number of projects in the next year. First, we will summarize the data collected from Year 1 of the 'Combined Cultural Practices' study and discuss any changes to make for Year 2 of that study. We will also initate the first year of data collection on the 'Resistant Cultivar Study' and summarize/analyze the data in fall of 2022. We will also distribute our 'Seed Selection Factors' survey to an international audience in the early spring of 2022 and collaborate with data scientists from the United States Golf Association to analyze the results. We also anticipate sequencing the dollar spot isolates collected during the summer and fall of 2020.

We intend to meet as a group, virtually or in-person, in early 2022 to discuss the results from 2021 and plan ahead for 2022.

None to date.