Golf
18th at Congressional ahead of the US Open
drainage setup in the last. This was to compare the drainage types to see which one was best to use so that, in the future, bunkers on the course could be improved. This was a great learning experience for me.
One of the highlights was when I was selected to spend the day working at the White House where I got to work on the President’s putting green. It was a surreal moment in my career and an amazing memory; one I will never forget. Unfortunately, the President was not around, just lots of security! After we finished our maintenance of the green, we got a quick tour of the White House and got to take some pictures standing on the back lawn.
In June, I was fortunate enough to be selected as one of the volunteers for the 111th US Open at Congressional in Bethesda, Maryland. I had worked several tour events during my time at Woburn Golf Club, but this was on a completely different scale. I arrived for orientation on the Sunday and there were about 120 volunteers there. The organisation was excellent and the whole week was fantastic! I mowed fairways in the mornings and touched up bunkers from the day’s play in the evening.
Being part of a major tournament was amazing and, to be able to see an operation of that size being run, was an eye opener to say the least. You could see the way that the team at Congressional and the USGA were working together to achieve the best results, The tournament was a great success, and I even got to hold the US Open trophy! The whole week was definitely a highlight of my career so far and was great to be part of. I worked at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club until December, and I am really
grateful that Mike O’Keeffe placed me there. Mike knew exactly how to challenge me to bring out the best in me. I will never forget the staff at RTJ, especially David McGregor and Scott Furlong, for giving me some great and constructive criticism, showing that they really cared about my success and future. After working at RTJ, I moved to the Ohio State University campus for the winter quarter (January to March). The university is almost a city on its own. They have two Alister MacKenzie designed golf courses on campus, 63,000 students and a stadium that holds 106,000 people for their football games. The place is amazing.
I took five classes and also two of the world famous professor, Dr Karl Danneberger’s, online courses. He has created two fantastic online courses that I would highly recommend to anyone. The first is in Golf Course Management, covering warm season and cool season grasses, and the second is in Turf Stress Physiology; both courses were very in depth, but are really enjoyable and will definitely help you to improve your knowledge in the golf maintenance industry.
Studying at OSU was fantastic and a
great experience - except for the freezing weather and snow! Everyone was really friendly and helped out where possible. My class schedule was really good and it gave me time to really enjoy the student life.
On top of the great turf classes, I also got to take a class in the PGA/PGM department in business planning, studying business plans and ways to improve management practices. OSU offer a five year degree in this
area of Professional Golf Management, and it was informative to see the other
13th at RTJ - course closed! DECEMBER/JANUARY 2013 PC 19
“One of the highlights was when I was selected to spend the day working at the White House where I got to work on the President's putting green. It was surreal”
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