Success

In order to be successful in the turfgrass management industry, you have to be a good communicator. What that means is being able to communicate to your crew members for what needs to be done and to communicate to the people who just play golf and decide rather you should have this piece of equipment or not. In this business, you really don't have to be that great at growing grass. What really moves you up in the rank to be a superintendent is communicating well to the right people. About 10 percent of the industry is growing grass the other 90 percent is communication. I have met some people through the years that were very good at communicating and some that needed to work on it. Also being a good communicator allows you to accomplish a lot more tasks on the golf course because of the organization with your crew and the way you treat them. When you communicate to others, you expand your network of people and can go big in your career and to ask for assistance if say you're having trouble identifying a disease or whats a good product to spray for dollar spot etc.. In my experiences when working on a golf course, I tended to work harder when my employer treated me with respect and that's a trait on good communication skills.

Hand Mowing vs. Triplexing

Their are many advantages and disadvantages of hand mowing and triplexing. Hand mowing gives your course a more uniform cut and can improve the visual appearance of a golf course. When doing a grow in, hand mowers come in good use for the first few cuts of a new establish turf. But with hand mowing, comes more labor and more time consuming to give you those results and not many courses do this due to their budget and man power.

Triplexing is great also to save on labor for courses. But with triplexing come many disadvantages. Using a triplex can take jobs away which can be a good and bad depending on whose view your looking from. With hand mowing, you would need usually 4 walk behind mowers to take care of 18 holes in 4 hours but using a triplex, only need 2 mowers to cut greens in half the time it would take the walk behinds to do the job. From a turf managers prospective, they can cause compaction to your greens if using them constantly, have the potential of hydraulic leaks, and not getting as of a uniformed cut. Now days though a lot of company's have been making improvement on their triplexes where they are getting very close to what a hand mower would give your course.

Medinah Country Club 2010 Internship

This summer I'll be taking my internship at Medinah Country Club located in Medinah IL, which is thirty minutes away from the city of Chicago. The last event that was held there was the 2006 PGA Championship that was won by Tiger Woods. The next upcoming major event will be the Ryder Cup in 2012. It is a 54-hole golf complex and was established in 1920 by a group of Shriner's. What I will be trying to learn during the course of this internship will consist of understanding the chemical importance in this industry, knowing the sprayers and applicators and how to operate them properly. I also will be learning the different kinds of machinery used on a golf course, gaining a better understanding of how superintendents deal with particular problems on a golf course, and comprehending water management skills and learning how to save water and to use it efficiently.

For Starter's

My name is Chris Funke, I'm 21 years old and I was born in Northeastern PA in a little town called Mountain Top. I started my career in the Turf Industry when I was 15 years old at a 27 hole facility, Blue Ridge Trail Golf Club. I am currently in my first year in the two-year program for Golf Course Turfgrass Management Program at Penn State University.