Important takeaways from the ’26 GCSAA Show

I’ve often told people, my memory may be lousy, but my magazine, website and YouTube page never forgets.

That’s why we’ve taken a different approach to our coverage of events like the GCSAA Conference and Trade Show. Instead of my team and I furiously trying to take notes on everything we saw and heard, now we travel with a film crew and we just record it. All of it.

I’ve got a couple of notes that follow here, some of my important takeaways from the recent show in Orlando. But also important, we shot 51 videos (oh man, we should have gotten one more!) with vendors who had their products on display at the GCSAA show. We’ll share these all year, gradually on our YouTube page and in our Golfdom Insider e-newsletter.  

The show was packed

This show did a lot to celebrate the GCSAA’s 100-year anniversary, and everyone seemed to have a little extra juice for the occasion. Of note, GCSAA reworked the trade show schedule this year, and the new format resulted in a busier trade show. The show closed at 1 p.m. on Thursday, and the traffic was still busy — people were still visiting booths and shopping. In years past, that last 90 minutes, the show turned into a ghost town. Not this year.

The Toro booth, John Deere booth and USGA were all noticeably busy every time I cruised by. Kress, despite its location in the corner of the trade show floor, also seemed to have a flurry of activity throughout the conference. 

Following the show, GCSAA reported that it was the fourth straight year the show’s attendance has grown. The Orlando show had 12,824 attendees, up 15 percent over 2025. A record-breaking 8,074 seminar seats were filled, breaking the record set in 2008. The trade show featured 523 exhibitors, up from 464 in 2025. 

Syngenta makes a splash  

The team at Syngenta had a lot to be excited about as they launched three new products: Atexzo insecticide/miticide, Trefinti nematicide/fungicide and Aero GCX, a microclimate sensor. They also relaunched WeevilTrak with its biggest update since it launched in 2009 and gave it a new name: WeevilTrakPlus.com.

The company hosted me at Orange Tree GC in Orlando prior to the kickoff of the show so I could learn more about these launches. Rob Torri, superintendent and assistant general manager of the course, met with me to show me a plug from a green and the better roots he’s growing thanks to Trefinti.

“In Central Florida, nematodes have become a pretty significant challenge, and over the course of the last few years, the resources have been very limited,” Torri told me. “What we’ve found with this new product is the longevity is more consistent, which entails less fungicide usage, less stress on the plant and better efficacy out of fertility applications. All these things in conjunction result in a much healthier turfgrass plant. To see those nice, white root hairs, especially this time of year with the weather we’ve experienced? It’s a beautiful thing.” 

There’s additional content on Atexzo in this issue, and we’ll have more about Aero GCX online.

Envu launches Signature XTRA Stressgard Liquid fungicide

I met Jeff Kwiatkowski, Envu’s new head of the U.S. turf and ornamental team, for the first time. Kwiatkowski, an Ohio native and former caddie, worked for Scotts Miracle-Gro for 23 years, both in the U.S. and Europe. 

Kwiatkowski talked to me about the breadth of the product portfolio Envu has now following the acquisition of FMC GSS. The company is focused on bringing new solutions to the market, one of which will be available to superintendents soon: a liquid version of Signature XTRA Stressgard. 

“People said we couldn’t do it, get a liquid fosetyl-aluminum out there in the market. We did. We’re so proud of it,” he says. “We can’t wait for superintendents to experience the ease of mixing, the ease of use that we’ll bring to the market.”

I also met again with Envu CEO Gilles Galliou, who told me he believes the integration of FMC went well. 

“What matters in our eyes is what customers are telling us. Not only are we integrating products and solutions from the GSS business but also technology for the future. We’ve integrated a lot of great people as well,” he says. “We will continue to search for technology. We’re all about innovation and bringing new products to the market and finding new solutions for problems that the customers have today. Our first search is what are the new technologies that are available — maybe on the side of our business, say from crop — that we can bring to this world? We are going to continue to search for technology.”

Galliou also told me he’s looking at opportunities to “grow externally.” So does that mean more acquisition news in the future? 

“I cannot guarantee or promise,” he says, “but I can guarantee we will be looking for something.”  

Other notes

I’m running out of space, so I’m going rapid fire with bullet points:

• Nate Fisher, product marketing associate at The Toro Co. walked me around the new GreensPro e1700. It’s their new heavy-duty utility greens roller in an all-electric platform. Fisher said he feels the greens roller hasn’t changed much over the last 30 years, but this machine took pain points for golf course crews and offered solutions. Of note, he says this roller won’t scuff or slip. 
• Chase Tew, production systems and business unit manager, John Deere, showed me the brand-new 2775 E-Cut Electric Triplex Mower. They just started shipping these last month. It has Deere’s internal autonomy technology stack integrated into a golf mower for the first time — previously, the tech has been utilized in agriculture as well as in mining equipment. “This is the power of technology from John Deere at its finest, right here,” Tew says. 
• Ken Rost, CEO and founder of Frost Inc., showed me the ASTRO, what he calls the world’s first robotic greens sprayer. The product made its debut at the 2025 Golfdom Summit, where superintendents demoed the product (so if you know anyone on this month’s cover, ask them what they thought about it). “It’s meant to be a piece of equipment to serve the most expensive turf on earth. We want to do it with accuracy, and we want to keep the operators removed from the opportunity for error but also keep them removed from the chemical zone,” Rost says. 
• David Feist, senior director of marketing, North America, for Sipcam Agro, says he was “amazed” by the number of people who came through their booth this year. They were excited to launch Linchpin, a new herbicide developed specifically for crabgrass and kyllinga, as well as sedges, in addition to a number of broadleaf weeds. “We’ve just received registration, and we’re in the process of receiving the last of our state registrations, so we’re ready to go,” he says. 

There’s so much more in my notebook — and in my videos — but for now, I’ll save some material for Golfdom’s website and YouTube. 

If you’d like more information on any of the tools mentioned above, they’re just a click away. But remember, with 51 videos, we won’t share all of them at once… but we will continuously share these product videos all year. 

And if I missed a cool product at the show? It’s not too late to connect with me; you know how to reach me.