Turfgrass expertise, built for what comes next.
Turfpath brings together agronomic consulting, practical education, professional resources, and technology designed around the realities of turfgrass management.
Founded by turfgrass scientist John Kaminski, Ph.D., Turfpath turns decades of research, diagnostics, teaching, consulting, and field experience into useful services and tools for the people managing turf every day.
Useful science should not stop at the edge of the research plot.
Turfgrass professionals make decisions under pressure, often with incomplete information, limited time, and consequences that appear quickly. Turfpath was created to make research, field experience, professional education, and technology more useful at the moment those decisions are made.
The company's work ranges from solving agronomic problems and improving professional workflows to developing software, books, and educational resources for the turfgrass industry. Different formats, same objective: understand the problem, make a better decision, and carry it into practice.
John Kaminski, Ph.D.
John Kaminski has spent his career working where turfgrass science meets practice. He is a professor, program director, researcher, diagnostician, educator, consultant, author, and technology founder whose work centers on the problems turf professionals encounter in the field.
At Penn State, he is a Professor of Turfgrass Science in the Department of Plant Science and Director of the Golf Course Turfgrass Management Program. His responsibilities include teaching, turfgrass research, and oversight of the university's Turfgrass Pest Diagnostic Lab, which provides diagnostic and pesticide-resistance screening services to golf courses, athletic fields, and sod farms. Beyond the university, he works with golf courses, turfgrass organizations, companies, and professional audiences in the United States and internationally.
Turfpath grew out of that combination of experience. The company provides a place to pursue independent consulting, educational resources, and technology built specifically for the turfgrass industry, including the TurfPath app and GroundsLedger.
A career built around turfgrass science and practice.
1998
B.S. in Turfgrass Science and Landscape Contracting, Pennsylvania State University.
1998-2004
Graduate study at the University of Maryland, earning an M.S. in Agronomy (2001) and a Ph.D. in Natural Resource Sciences (2004).
2005-2008
Assistant Professor of Turfgrass Pathology at the University of Connecticut, directing the university's turfgrass disease diagnostic work.
2009
Returns to Penn State as Director of the Golf Course Turfgrass Management Program.
2009-2018
Advances through the Penn State faculty ranks to Professor of Turfgrass Science, building out research, diagnostics, teaching, and consulting work.
More recently
Founds TurfPath and GroundsLedger, extending that experience into technology built for the turfgrass industry.
Built around the problems turf professionals actually face.
Turfpath combines turfgrass expertise, practical education, professional services, and purpose-built technology. Each part of the company addresses a different aspect of the work, from understanding agronomic problems to reducing the administrative burden surrounding them.
Agronomic consulting
Independent agronomic consulting for golf courses and professional turf operations, grounded in site conditions, management history, research, and recommendations that can realistically be implemented.
Explore Consulting →Technology and productivity
Practical software and technology guidance designed around turfgrass workflows, field information, financial administration, and the decisions turf managers make every day.
Education and speaking
Teaching, workshops, presentations, and professional education that make technical subjects understandable, useful, and relevant to the audience in the room.
Request John as a Speaker →Books and professional resources
Books and digital resources that translate turfgrass science into material students and professionals can use in classrooms, training programs, and daily management.
View the Books →Specialized by design.
Turfpath is a founder-led company built around direct expertise, focused products, and practical execution. Consulting, product direction, education, support, and business operations remain closely connected to the turfgrass problems the company was created to address.
Research matters. Experience matters. Implementation decides whether either one helps.
The best recommendation is not merely technically correct. It must account for the site, the people doing the work, the resources available, and the decision that actually needs to be made. Turfpath projects begin with the problem, not with a predetermined product or fashionable technology.
Technology is approached the same way. AI, automation, and software are useful when they remove repetitive work, reveal relevant information, or improve a decision. They are not useful simply because someone added “AI” to a sales deck and hoped nobody would ask a follow-up question.
Turfpath leadership.
Turfpath, LLC is an independent company. The consulting, software, publications, and other services described on this website are separate from John Kaminski's responsibilities at Penn State University, conducted in accordance with applicable university outside professional activities policies, unless expressly identified otherwise.
Start with what you are trying to accomplish.
Whether the need is agronomic guidance, a better professional workflow, a speaking engagement, or a practical turfgrass resource, Turfpath begins with the problem and builds from there.
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